DR Congo have become a far harder team to play against under Sébastien Desabre, and the change is plain in the shape. What was once a side pulled apart by inconsistency now most often sits in a compact 4-1-4-1, with the coach asking his players to stay connected, defend in numbers and make every move count.
That is why Yoane Wissa’s return matters now. He missed the Africa Cup of Nations after a knee injury and is coming back with the weight of expectation on him, alongside Cédric Bakambu, for a team that has already done enough to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Wissa also arrives with a sharper reputation than before, after becoming the first DR Congo player to score more than 10 Premier League goals in a season.
Desabre took charge in 2022 and quickly imposed a clearer order on a squad that had long been associated with chaos. The results were not flashy, but they were stubborn. DR Congo beat Cameroon late in qualification, edged Nigeria on penalties and then beat Jamaica in extra time in the intercontinental playoff. At the time of writing, the full squad had not lost a match by more than one goal under him. That record says as much about their discipline as any tactical diagram does.
The shape itself explains a lot. In the 4-1-4-1, one midfielder stays anchored in front of the defence while the two banks ahead of him keep the distances short. That gives the back line more protection and allows the wing-backs to step into wider areas without leaving the team stretched. When Desabre switches to a back three, as he did against Togo and South Sudan during qualifying, the centre-backs can spread wider, the wing-backs can push higher and the midfield can stay compact behind the ball. It is a system built to limit space first and ask questions later.
That is also where the criticism lands. DR Congo are difficult to break down, but they rarely dominate games or create freely in open play. Their qualification path came through tight knockout-style matches, not through long spells of control, and that leaves a real test hanging over the World Cup itself: whether a team so good at surviving can be just as sharp when it has to chase a game. Bakambu has called Desabre’s setup a framework, and it is one that has given the squad a shape they can trust.
Desabre himself has framed the task in cultural as well as tactical terms, saying discipline must begin on the pitch and that DR Congo is a true football country whose supporters are proud of their team. The schedule now gives his side little time to admire the progress. They open against Portugal in Houston on 17 June, face Colombia in Guadalajara on 23 June and finish the first round against Uzbekistan in Atlanta on 27 June. For Wissa and Bakambu, those matches will show whether this Cdo Soccer Team can do more than frustrate opponents and whether the structure Desabre built can carry them beyond the qualifying run.
