U.S. men’s soccer team opens the Paris Olympics with a tough loss against France at the oclympics
France had control over the first half and shot the Americans 8-3. The US looked composed and calm while beating back a French team that was whistled for seven fouls. It was blank at halftime.
The U.S. missed a golden opportunity to get on the scoreboard first. Djordje Mihailovic smashed off the bar in the 59th minute.
Both the U.S. and France started the second half much how they ended the first: trading spirited passes and attacking deep into their own halves of play. The overwhelmingly French crowd cheered on their team as they finished 13th at the Tokyo Olympics.
Source: The U.S. men’s soccer team opens the Paris Olympics with a tough loss against France
The U.S. women’s soccer team in Paris, France, departed from the Women’s World Cup after winning gold at the 2016 London Olympics
In Olympic men’s soccer, roster restrictions require nearly all players to be under 23 years old. Most of the U.S. squad, coached by Marko Mitrovic, has previously played in Major League Soccer or an MLS academy club. One of the three players is a 31 years old. He started three times and appeared in four US matches at the World Cup.
PARIS — The U.S. women’s soccer team heads into the Paris Olympics with a new coach and an opportunity to reset after dismal performances at recent major tournaments.
Speaking at a news conference in Marseille, France, head coach Emma Hayes insisted the team is looking forward, following its earliest ever exit at a Women’s World Cup last year.
We have moved past that. I think this team is past that. Our motivation is more often about other things, such as getting things fixed. It is far from it. She said they were excited and prepared.
The U.S. women’s team has won four Olympic gold medals, but none since 2012. The team stumbled at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics (exiting without a medal after losing to Sweden) and winning only bronze at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
This will be the first major tournament for Hayes, who joined the team this year after wrapping up her 12th season at Chelsea FC. In the team’s two final warmup games before heading to France, the U.S. scored just one goal, beating Mexico 1-0 and having a 0-0 draw against Costa Rica.
“We take one game at a time, and with Emma coming in, we’ve learned a lot, we’ve grown a lot and we’ve introduced a lot of new things that I think will help us have success in this tournament,” she said.
“Zambia, probably one of the best transition counterattacking teams in the world. The goal threat would be exceptional, and they probably have the world’s best-hitting forward, Barbra Banda.
The team will play Zambia in Nice (kickoff is at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday), before closing out the group stage in Marseille against Germany and Australia.
The Women’s Soccer Paradigm at the Olympics and the Status of Football: A New Coach’s Advice to the U.S.
Asked, as a new coach, how much pressure she personally feels to perform at the Olympics, Hayes said that she pays little attention to external pressure and that she is “very grateful for the history of the program.” But she suggested that expectations of U.S. dominance may be misplaced because of the quality of the women’s game internationally.
The US is ranked fifth in the world. That is the lowest spot ever since FIFA began ranking women’s teams more than two decades ago.
The world’s game has caught up and in a few places has taken over. We need to focus on what we need to do to find the levels again. There wasn’t a lot of parity in the world game 10 years ago. It’s parity now.
She believes that people shouldn’t expect a team to dominate the landscape of football in the way they did 10 years ago.