The U.S. men’s soccer team had a tough loss against France
U.S. men’s soccer open tournament with a tough loss to France: a decisive penalty from Lacazette to Olise
Lacazette continued his brilliant play in the 69th minute with an assist. He scooted around the American defense and passed to Michael Olise who doubled the French lead.
The U.S. missed a golden opportunity to get on the scoreboard first. Djordje Mihailovic’s goal was in the 59th minute.
Both the US and France started the second half like they finished the first: attacking and exchanging passes. The French crowd was happy to see that their team 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: preparations for the next tournament and the first big tournament for Hayes (Nielsen)
Most of the athletes in the Olympic soccer team are under the age of 23. 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 players is 31 years old. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he started three times and appeared in all four U.S. matches.
The U.S. women’s soccer team is looking to reset after poor showings at recent tournaments with a new coach.
Last year the team was eliminated in the first round of the Women’s World Cup, but that didn’t stop head coach Emma hayes from saying the team is looking forward.
We’ve moved on from that. This team is past that, I believe. Our motivation isn’t always about righting the wrongs. Far from it. She said that 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. The U.S. scored just one goal in two games against Mexico and Costa Rica before heading to France for the World Cup.
“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.
“I know what a threat she can be,” said defender Emily Fox, of Banda. The entire team is a threat. We are ready for it. … We know that we are going to have a really tough opponent, so focusing on them and not thinking about how we might do against them.
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.
How Do We Expect to Compete with Women’s Soccer in the Olympics? She Explains She’s Glad That the U.S. is ranked fifth in FIFA’s International Rankings
As a new coach, how much pressure does she think she’ll get to perform in the Olympics? Hayes said she pays little attention to external pressure and she is grateful for the history of the program. She suggested that expectations of dominance may be overstated due to the quality of the women’s game internationally.
The U.S. is ranked fifth in FIFA’s international rankings. It is the lowest ranking ever since the women’s team was assigned a ranking more than two decades ago.
“The world’s game is catching up and taking over some places,” he said. We need to pay attention to what we do to be able to find those levels again. But also recognizing it isn’t 10 years ago, where there wasn’t parity in the world game. There is parity now.”
“So I don’t think anybody should expect one team to completely dominate the football landscape in today’s football in the way that it was 10 years ago,” she added.