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Sam Borden, ESPN Senior Writer
MARSEILLE, France — At the end of a chaotic, controversial and farce-filled day of Olympic soccer, the United States men’s team finally made its return to the Summer Games only to see France run away to a much-anticipated celebration.
Given the relative insanity of what came earlier Wednesday — highlighted by the hours-delayed, VAR-infused ending to Morocco‘s upset of Argentina following a shocking fan invasion of the field — the party atmosphere at the Velodrome stadium felt almost quaint. But every result is critical in this sprint of a tournament, and France’s 3-0 victory over the Americans gave at least most of the 67,000 fans a reason to applaud coach Thierry Henry’s squad at the end of the evening. Playing in their home country, a medal is the absolute minimum expected for Les Bleus.
For the U.S., the bar is certainly lower, though Marko Mitrovic’s players have ambition and were clearly disappointed to be on the wrong end of a lopsided scoreline, particularly after showing reasonably well — at least for an hour — in the country’s first Olympic men’s match since 2008.
“I don’t think it was a fair result,” Mitrovic said afterward. “We didn’t deserve to lose this way, but we have to learn our lesson.”
That notion of building experience is pronounced in this under-23 tournament (with three exceptions per team), where most of the game’s top stars — including Christian Pulisic and nearly everyone else from the USMNT Copa America roster — are in preseason with their club teams instead of competing here. These games for the Americans are as much about the future as the present.
So how did they do in their opening appearance? Performances varied, but Kevin Paredes displayed aplomb with his crosses and Nathan Harriel worked well up and down the field, while both Djordje Mihailovic and John Tolkin had headers crash off the woodwork where an inch or two the other way might have meant a momentum-shifting goal.
“We played one of the best teams in the tournament, and I think we showed ourselves for 60 minutes,” Gianluca Busio said. “But we know that in tournaments like these you can’t lose concentration, [and] I think that’s what happened.”
It certainly was, as the U.S. was undone by an unfortunate combination of ill-timed defensive letdowns and individual brilliance from France. The critical sequence was brutal: Mihailovic hit the crossbar with a right-footed blast from beyond the penalty area in the 59th minute, only to see France almost immediately surge the other way.
While Mihailovic went high with his shot, Alexandre Lacazette — one of France’s three overage players — went low with his, taking full advantage of Busio’s slowness to close him down and whipping a strike into the far corner.
Lacazette, a wily forward who plays for Lyon after spending five years with Arsenal, credited the US defense for holding him off as long as they did.
“They were really aggressive and compact,” he said. “They played better than I thought.”
Defender Walker Zimmerman, who is one of the United States’ coverage players, was visibly upset after Lacazette’s goal, shouting at his teammates to keep their level up. The U.S. nearly rebounded, too, but Paxten Aaronson had a close-range header saved smartly by Guillaume Restes, and Tolkin then followed with his back-post effort that slammed off the base of the upright. On the sideline, Mitrovic put his head in his hands in frustration.
Lacazette then fed Michael Olise for France’s second inside 10 minutes to send the French crowd into full-throated cheers. And just as Busio was slow to close down Lacazette on the opener, so too was Aaronson delayed in getting to Olise on his drive from distance. Both times, France made them pay.
“It’s something that we spoke about,” Mitrovic said. “The guys on their team, they have so much quality to use even if they’re 25 yards from the goal.”
Letdowns aside, France boss Henry was effusive in his praise of the Americans, saying that he was surprised by the way they defended and adding that they might have actually handled the emotions of the crowd better than his own players, at least at the start. And while Henry was pleased to see Loïc Badé round off the scoring five minutes from the end, his larger point about France applied to the U.S. players as well. “This game means nothing without the next one,” Henry said.
That much is surely true. For the U.S., the next challenge is a match Saturday against New Zealand — a game the Americans believe they should win, same as they will expect to win in their finale with Guinea. Succeed in both, and they’ll likely be through to the quarterfinals.
Indeed, despite this defeat, the Americans still have their sights squarely on advancing out of the group, and they’ve spoken openly to one another about the possibility of making history: No U.S. men’s team has ever won a medal in the modern Olympic era.
“That’s been our goal from the start,” Busio said, “and just because we had a little setback doesn’t mean it’s not still possible.”
Mihailovic was even more direct. After seeing how the U.S. played over the first hour, he said he’d like nothing more than a rematch with France later in the tournament.
“I think we’ve got to get out of the group,” he said, “and then hopefully we’ll see them in the final.”
