A cheap draw for the United States and Thierry Henry and the French football team in the opening match
With or without Kylian Mbappé, the French Olympic team (almost) knows its opponents for the first round of the Paris 2024 Olympic tournament. Coach Thierry Henry and his players will next face the United States and New Zealand on July 24 and 30, in Marseille. Bleuets will have to wait to find out their last opponent (July 27, in Nice). The play-offs will pit Guinea and Asian teams in early May.
“Even if a team is still missing, we can start working and planning. We play the United States on Monday (March 25) in Sochaux (in a friendly match), we didn’t know that we were going to face them right away. We are in concrete from this evening”declared Thierry Henry, who opted not to advance to a possible quarter-final against Morocco or Argentina.
The football tournament will begin on July 24, two days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. As the host country, France was awarded the top spot, as was Argentina, during the draw held at the headquarters of the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (COJO), Wednesday 20 March, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis).
“We Imagined Gold”
The Olympic tournament is reserved for players born on the 1ster January 2001, but, like other selectors, Thierry Henry is likely to retain three footballers over the age of 23. Kylian Mbppé dreams of being a part of the Olympic Games. The problem is, Real Madrid – where the Paris Saint-Germain striker is heavily advertised next season – refuses to release its players for the Olympic tournament outside of the FIFA dates.
For Thierry Henry, the aim is gold, and to emulate the team led by Henry Michel in 1984. “I have already said, we envision gold. We visualize where we want to go, but there is a way to get there, that’s what visualizing is all about, and the South Americans are doing it very well at the Olympic Games. 1998 world champions and Brazil, double title holders but largely absent from the Parisian edition, in reference to Argentina’s title in 2008.
A football encyclopedia, the former striker also knows Olympic history and gauges French football’s struggles through 40 years at the Olympics. Apart from the quarter-finals in 1996 in Atlanta (United States), France have not advanced beyond the first round since 1984. “We’ll do everything we can to get gold like Los Angeles”The coach made a promise regarding the Olympic title brought back from California by the team led by Henry Mitchell.
Another era. The tournament was not reserved for under-23s and the French team led by Daniel Zureb, Guy Lacombe and Albert Rust defeated Brazil (2–0) in the final. In the absence of a similar opponent, the Blueettes hope to follow in their footsteps on August 9 at the Parc des Princes in Paris.
Draw
Group A : France, United States, Guinea or Asia 4**, New Zealand,
Group B : Argentina, Morocco, Asia 3*, Ukraine
Group C : Asia 2*, Spain, Egypt, Dominican Republic
Group D : Asia 1*, Paraguay, Mali, Israel
*The nations will be decided based on the results of the Asian U-23 Championship.
**A play-off between Guinea and the Asian team will be played in early May
