It took a stroke of genius to wake up the Marseille stadium packed with some 64,000 spectators who were just waiting to get excited. And who else but Alexandre Lacazette could have done it? More anticipated than the others, more experienced too, the “General”, as he is nicknamed, did not fail in his mission by guiding his team to a first important victory, this Tuesday against the United States (3-0) in the Olympic tournament.
For a long time, however, Thierry Henry’s players lacked inspiration, magic and excitement. To the point that, at times, the atmosphere in the stadium seemed quite dull. But the Lyon player sounded the revolt shortly after the hour mark by finding the target of a shot from outside the area that lodged in the side netting (1-0, 61st). Deliverance for an entire group that had struggled, until then, to come out of its shell to hurt the audacious Americans.
The drama did not pass far when Restes tried to push away a dangerous shot from Aaronson with his foot (38th). Above all, the Toulouse goalkeeper was very happy, on two occasions, to see the ball hit his posts on attempts by Mihailovic (59th) and Tolkin (64th) after another header that was just as difficult to get a few minutes earlier.
“We deserve this victory”
The USA wave had passed and the blue, white, red wave was just arriving! Once again served by Lacazette, the phenomenon Michael Olise finally engaged the second to score the break goal with a slightly deflected shot from 25 meters (2-0, 69th) later imitated by a header from a corner by the Seville defender Loïc Badé (3-0, 85th). “And 1, and 2 and 3-0!” As good football connoisseurs, the Marseille crowd could sing the iconic song of 98 to celebrate this cannon start.
“It’s a complicated match, it took us a while to free ourselves,” Lacazette analyzed on France Television. “They (the Americans) were very compact, we were maybe a little tense, that’s normal, it’s a first match. I think we deserved this victory. We wanted to win in style, and we did, with three goals. The crowd was there. It’s nice to play in full stadiums on a beautiful pitch.”
Henry’s gang certainly didn’t deliver all the hallmarks of a future champion, alternating between very average and very good, but they couldn’t have hoped for a better start. The coach had warned that this match had to set the tone for the competition, get everyone involved to “bring people back to us”. We can say that it was successful. They will now have to confirm next Saturday, in Nice, against Guinea, who are up against the wall after their opening defeat against New Zealand. France takes pole position and it’s Marseille who gets into the mood!