MARSEILLE, France — On the finish of a chaotic, controversial and farce-filled day of Olympic soccer, the US males’s group lastly made its return to the Summer time Video games solely to see France run away to a much-anticipated celebration.
Given the relative madness of what got here earlier Wednesday — highlighted by the hours-delayed, VAR-infused ending to Morocco’s upset of Argentina following a stunning fan invasion of the sector — the get together ambiance on the Velodrome stadium felt nearly quaint. However each result’s important on this dash of a match, and France’s 3-0 victory over the People gave a minimum of many of the 67,000 followers a motive to applaud coach Thierry Henry’s squad on the finish of the night. Taking part in of their house nation, a medal is absolutely the minimal anticipated for Les Bleus.
For the U.S., the bar is actually decrease, although Marko Mitrovic’s gamers have ambition and had been clearly upset to be on the unsuitable finish of a lopsided scoreline, notably after exhibiting moderately properly — a minimum of for an hour — within the nation’s first Olympic males’s match since 2008.
“I do not suppose it was a good consequence,” Mitrovic mentioned afterward. “We did not should lose this fashion, however now we have to study our lesson.”
That notion of constructing expertise is pronounced on this under-23 match (with three exceptions per group), the place many of the sport’s high stars — together with Christian Pulisic and practically everybody else from the USMNT Copa America roster — are in preseason with their membership groups as a substitute of competing right here. These video games for the People are as a lot concerning the future as the current.
So how did they do of their opening look? Performances different, however Kevin Paredes displayed aplomb together with his crosses and Nathan Harriel labored properly up and down the sector, whereas each Djordje Mihailovic and John Tolkin had headers crash off the woodwork the place an inch or two the opposite manner may need meant a momentum-shifting objective.
“We performed probably the greatest groups within the match, and I believe we confirmed ourselves for 60 minutes,” Gianluca Busio mentioned. “However we all know that in tournaments like these you possibly can’t lose focus, [and] I believe that is what occurred.”
It actually was, because the U.S. was undone by an unlucky mixture of ill-timed defensive letdowns and particular person brilliance from France. The important sequence was brutal: Mihailovic hit the crossbar with a right-footed blast from past the penalty space within the 59th minute, solely to see France nearly instantly surge the opposite manner.
Whereas Mihailovic went excessive together with his shot, Alexandre Lacazette — one in every of France’s three overage gamers — went low together with his, taking full benefit of Busio’s slowness to shut him down and whipping a strike into the far nook.
Lacazette, a wily ahead who performs for Lyon after spending 5 years with Arsenal, credited the US protection for holding him off so long as they did.
“They had been actually aggressive and compact,” he mentioned. “They performed higher than I believed.”
Defender Walker Zimmerman, who is among the United States’ protection gamers, was visibly upset after Lacazette’s objective, shouting at his teammates to maintain their stage up. The U.S. practically rebounded, too, however Paxten Aaronson had a close-range header saved well by Guillaume Restes, and Tolkin then adopted together with his back-post effort that slammed off the bottom of the upright. On the sideline, Mitrovic put his head in his palms in frustration.
Lacazette then fed Michael Olise for France’s second inside 10 minutes to ship the French crowd into full-throated cheers. And simply as Busio was gradual to shut down Lacazette on the opener, so too was Aaronson delayed in attending to Olise on his drive from distance. Each occasions, France made them pay.
“It is one thing that we spoke about,” Mitrovic mentioned. “The fellows on their group, they’ve a lot high quality to make use of even when they’re 25 yards from the objective.”
Letdowns apart, France boss Henry was effusive in his reward of the People, saying that he was shocked by the way in which they defended and including that they could have really dealt with the feelings of the gang higher than his personal gamers, a minimum of initially. And whereas Henry was happy to see Loïc Badé spherical off the scoring 5 minutes from the tip, his bigger level about France utilized to the U.S. gamers as properly. “This sport means nothing with out the following one,” Henry mentioned.
That a lot is unquestionably true. For the U.S., the following problem is a match Saturday towards New Zealand — a sport the People consider they need to win, identical as they are going to count on to win of their finale with Guinea. Reach each, they usually’ll doubtless be by way of to the quarterfinals.
Certainly, regardless of this defeat, the People nonetheless have their sights squarely on advancing out of the group, they usually’ve spoken overtly to at least one one other about the opportunity of making historical past: No U.S. males’s group has ever received a medal within the trendy Olympic period.
“That is been our objective from the beginning,” Busio mentioned, “and simply because we had a bit setback does not imply it isn’t nonetheless attainable.”
Mihailovic was much more direct. After seeing how the U.S. performed over the primary hour, he mentioned he’d like nothing greater than a rematch with France later within the match.
“I believe we have got to get out of the group,” he mentioned, “after which hopefully we’ll see them within the remaining.”