For a moment, it felt like the U.S. U23 men's national team might sneak something out of Wednesday's Olympic opener.
They may not have been taking it to France, but they were certainly frustrating them. The Olympic hosts are the overwhelming favorites to win gold, and, for the first 60 minutes, the U.S. - playing their first Olympic match in 5,824 days in front of a packed house at the historic Stade de Marseille - kept them under control.
It was in the last 30 minutes that the differences became clear. The U.S. wasn't the cause of their own undoing necessarily, but they certainly didn't help themselves. When facing a team with France's quality, you can't make even the most minor of mistakes, and the U.S. made far too many in a game that ended up as a blowout.
The 3-0 scoreline will flatter France, but not too much. They were the better team. The goals from Alexandre Lacazette, Michael Olise and Loic Bade were deserved. The U.S. were rightfully beaten by a team that stayed the course and waited for the U.S. to break.
They inevitably did, but it didn't always look inevitable. The U.S. had their chances to take the lead. Djordje Mihailovic hit the crossbar. John Tolkin hit the post. Paxten Aaronson forced one heck of a save, too. If the U.S. converts one of those chances, who knows? How would those goals have changed this game?
We'll never know, but we do know this: the U.S, which last qualified for the Olympics in men's soccer in 2008, is already up against it. They'll need results against Guinea and New Zealand in their upcoming group games. This France game, in some ways, was always just a bonus. Unfortunately for the U.S., it wasn't to be.
"Football is a very special game and I think that just creating opportunities is a good thing," U.S. coach Marko Mitrovic said after the match. "Obviously, we wanted to convert those opportunities. But some days everything goes in your favor and some days it doesn't. I don't think that they [France] had opportunities besides shots outside of the box and that's how we conceded. There were situations that were clear for us that we didn't convert, but you have days like this.”
Now the tournament really starts. What lessons will the U.S. learn from this Olympic opening loss? The answer to that question will ultimately determine how this group shakes out.
GOAL rates the U.S. players from Stade de Marseille.