French Olympics come to life with men’s football victory over the USA

PARIS – The French starting 11 was value more than US$250 million. The local fans were excited, waving flags and shouting “Allez Les Bleus”. The fearsome three strikers alone played more than 300 games in the English Premier League. They entered the 2024 Olympics as the gold medal favorites in men’s football and an early contender to bring the Games to life.

And on Wednesday, in Marseille, they did exactly that, defeating the USA 3-0.

For an hour in Marseille on opening night, an aggressive American team faced them.

But in the 61st minute of Paris 2024’s first prime-time headliner, Alexandre Lacazette scored and the Stade Vélodrome erupted. The children kissed the French Football Federation emblems on their shirts. Thousands of blue, white and red flags flew.

Up until that point, the game had been somewhat dormant. And the Games, more broadly, were still waiting to wake up. In Paris, many residents escaped the madness of the Olympics. The areas around the River Seine are anything but blocked to prepare for Friday’s opening ceremony. Tuesday and Wednesday, in some ways, felt like normal Parisian nights, without the hustle and bustle.

The best cure for all this was France’s most popular sport, the one that took L’Equipe front page on Tuesday in a non-Olympic contextjust three days before the official start of the Olympics.

Of course, this was not a complete French football team. The Games are a mostly under-23 tournament. But it was still a French football team. And it was, by Olympic men’s soccer JV standards, stacked.

He came from Bayern Munich and Sevilla, RB Leipzig and Crystal Palace, in the German Bundesliga and throughout France’s Ligue 1. There were players valued at 25 million euros stuck on the bench. There were athletes all over the field who, unlike many Olympic athletes, the French public knows.

And the two biggest stars between them ignited the audience. Lacazette, a veteran striker, one of three overage picks, broke through the US resistance.

Michael Olise, a 22-year-old creator who recently signed for Bayern, scored the second.

The American collection of intriguing youngsters and MLS veterans was no match for star power.

For a while, they played reasonably well and encouraged cautious optimism. There was, on paper, a clear winner; but football – and especially men’s Olympic football – is not played on paper. On Wednesday morning, Morocco beat Argentina; Iraq beat Ukraine; the Dominican Republic controlled Egypt. Hope whispered: Will the US be next?

A dull first half suggested the answer might be yes. Even after the break, in the 59th minute, with the score still at 0-0, North American midfielder Djordje Mihailovic hit the crossbar.

But two minutes later, the answer was an emphatic no.

After Lacazette and Olise put the hosts in control, Loïc Badé put them out of reach and out of sight.

And the French Olympics, now full of controversyreceived their first jolt of excitement.