Argentina against Morocco in Saint Etienne and Spain against the winner of the Asian Olympic Qualifying Championship in Paris will be the opening games of the men’s soccer competition at the Olympic Games on July 24. Although the opening ceremony and the lighting of the pot will take place on Friday, July 26, soccer is one of the sports that will start earlier.
In group A, host France will cross paths with the United States, New Zealand and the winner of the playoff between the fourth of the Asian Olympic Qualifying Championship and Guinea, which was the fourth of the African Olympic Qualifying. In zone B, Argentina, Olympic champion in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, appears, who will debut against Morocco and then travel to Lyon to cross paths with the third in the Asian Olympic Qualifying Championship and with Ukraine. Group C includes Spain, Egypt and the Dominican Republic; and it remains to confirm the fourth member, who will be the champion of the Asian Olympic Qualifying Championship. Zone D will open in Bordeaux with Paraguay against the runner-up in the Asian Olympic Qualifying Championship and with the crossing between Israel and Mali, which will also be held on July 24, but in the Parc des Princes in Paris.
The men’s competition features 16 nations from six confederations. The squads are mostly made up of players under 23 years of age. The teams can also name three over 23 years of age among the 18 players, making fans’ excitement over the presence of Lionel Messi or Kylian Mbappé in Paris 2024.
Brazil, two-time Olympic champion in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, was unable to qualify for Paris 2024 after the loss to Argentina. Host France will seek to win the Olympic Games for the first time since Los Angeles 1984.
Ten of the 12 teams in the women’s competition have already been confirmed. The remaining two are reserved for the two best teams in the Olympic Qualification Tournament of the African Football Confederation, which will compete from April 1 to 9 in Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia. There are no age restrictions in the case of women’s Olympic football.
The world champion, Spain, and the reigning South American champion, Brazil, fell in the same group of the women’s tournament. Along with them, Japan, the country that was world champion in 2011, and an African selection (Nigeria or South Africa) will be in that group C. The Spanish women, recent winners of the UEFA Nations League, have in their ranks the players who have won the last three Ballons d’Or, Aitana Bonmatí (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021, 2022).
The other South American national team, Colombia, went to group A, with France, Canada (Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020) and New Zealand. Zone B will bring together the United States (golden four times), Germany, Australia and the winner of the playoff between Zambia and Morocco.
The best selected from each zone, together with the best two third parties, will advance to the quarter-final crosses. The gold medal match will take place on August 10 and will be the last of the entire Olympic competition.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
