MARSEILLE, France — The Paris Olympics don’t officially open until Friday. The games, however, already have begun.
That’s not necessarily a good thing for the U.S. men’s soccer team, which returned to the Summer Olympics on Wednesday after a 16-year absence and lost to France, 3-0, before a packed house at the Orange Velodrome.
The goals, all in the second half, came from Alexandre Lacazette, Michael Olise and Loic Bade.
Men’s soccer Olympic rosters are, with three exceptions, limited to players no older than 23. For the U.S., that meant no Christian Pulisic or Weston McKennie. The host country was without Kylian Mbappe or anyone else who played for France in the semifinals of this month’s European Championships and the finals of the last two World Cups.
Not that the heavily favored French missed any of them. With more than 1,000 players scattered around the globe, the country is the world’s second-leading producer of young soccer talent, trailing only Brazil.
Yet the anxious, overeager French struggled to solve a U.S. team content to crowd its penalty area, lining up as many as six players along its back line. The less-celebrated Americans, led by overage center backs Walker Zimmerman and Miles Robinson, were poised and patient and so content to defend, they seemingly went forward only when they had no choice.
Although the French eventually wore them down, the U.S. acquitted themselves well, playing the hosts even for more than an hour, and nearly drawing first blood.
Three minutes after the Colorado Rapids’ Djordje Mihailovic lined a shot from distance off the crossbar, French captain Lacazette rolled a right-footed shot by U.S. keeper Patrick Schulte and into the netting to give France the only goal it would need in the 61st minute.
It was a lead the Americans immediately challenged, but French keeper Guillaume Restes made a great reaction save on Paxten Aaronson’s header seconds before John Tolkin’s header got by Restes but struck the back post, leaving Tolkin banging the turf in frustration.
More frustration came for the U.S. five minutes later when Olise doubled the French advantage on a left-footed shot from outside the box. Both Olise and Lacazette, who got the assist on the goal, are overage players.
Bade then closed out the scoring with a header in the 85th minute. The U.S. lost a goal in stoppage time when Griffin Yow got the ball past Restes again, only to have the score waved off by an offside penalty.
Coach Marko Mitrović’s U.S. team still has a chance to reach the knockout round for just the second time since 1956, finishing group play with New Zealand and Guinea. The Kiwis won the opener between those two teams 2-1 to join France atop the group table with three points. The top two teams in each four-team group advance to next week’s quarterfinals.
