MARSEILLE, France — The Paris Olympics don’t officially open until Friday. The Games, however, already have begun.
And that’s not necessarily a good thing for the U.S. men’s soccer team, which returned to the Olympics after a 16-year absence Wednesday, falling 3-0 to France before a crowd of 67,000 at the Orange Velodrome, the largest attendance for an Olympic soccer match since Brazil’s opening match at home in 2016.
The goals, all in the second half, came from Alexandre Lacazette, Michael Olise and Loic Bade. But for the U.S. coach Marko Mitrović, the game wasn’t so much a loss as it was an opportunity.
“There were so many positive things that we have to build on,” he said. “I can’t say anything to the players. They were in the right spot, [made] the right passes, the right crosses.
“I have that feeling inside that we didn’t deserve to lose this way. But we have to learn our lesson. This is a business where results matter. If we can take positives from this game and build on them and forget the result, that would be very good.”
In 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 while 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 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 Americans, by comparison, were poised and patient, which let them hang with their heavily favored foes.
For an hour.
The game kicked off in the warm, late-night gloaming of southern France, allowing the tops of the large limestone hills that slice through Marseille to peak over the undulating roof of an iconic stadium now managed by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt.
But those hilltops had long since faded into the darkness before the game’s first goal, which came in the 61st minute when Lacazette, the French captain who played in a Europa League final with Arsenal, rolled a right-footed shot by U.S. keeper Patrick Schulte and into the netting to give France the lead.
That came just minutes after U.S. attacker Djordje Mihailovic lined a shot from distance off the crossbar.
And the Americans nearly pulled Lacazette’s goal back, only to be denied twice in a matter of seconds, first when French keeper Guillaume Restes made a great reaction save on Paxten Aaronson’s header, then when John Tolkin’s header got by Restes but struck the back post, leaving Tolkin banging the turf in frustration.
Olise, the leading scorer for Premier League side Crystal Palace this season, then effectually put the game away, doubling the French advantage with a left-footed shot from outside the box off an assist from Lacazette.
Bade then closed out the scoring with a header in the 85th minute.
“We hit the crossbar, they scored a goal,” Mitrović said. “We had an amazing two moments after that, they scored a second goal. When you play elite teams, those small things, those inches that you gave them, they use it.”
Defender Walker Zimmerman echoed his coach’s optimism.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “You look at the chances we had, those were huge opportunities that we just have to capitalize on. But we can take a lot of positives from today and know that we can compete with the best.”
The U.S. is still in control of its own destiny although its margin for error has evaporated, with Wednesday’s loss leaving it needing wins over New Zealand and Guinea in its next group-play games to advance to the knockout rounds for just the second time since 1956.
“Every game becomes must win,” Mitrović said. “This is a tournament. Margins are very small. On top of good performances, now we have to get results.”