Olympic Games Paris 2024: Soccer Tournament Preview

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are starting and one of the disciplines that brings the most fans is soccer, which will have its men’s tournament from July 24 to August 9, while the women’s tournament will start on July 25 and end on August 10.

In addition to France, as the host of the competition, the United States, Spain, and New Zealand will be the countries that will compete in both categories.

Olympic Games Paris 2024: Soccer Tournament Winner Betting Odds

Men’s Tournament top contenders

A great championship awaits us. There will be 16 teams divided into four groups, where the first two of each will advance to the quarterfinals. We must remember that for the Olympic Games, the teams are U-23 and can call up three players over that age.

There are three great candidates from which the champion will surely emerge: France, Spain and Argentina. On the part of the French, they want to win at home, besides that it would be the first gold in this discipline since Los Angeles 1984.

In addition to being the home team, the squad led by Thierry Henry has one of the most lethal forwards, if not the most: youngsters Michael Olise and Arnaud Kalimuendo, and veterans Alexandre Lacazette and Jean-Philippe Mateta. Between the four, they scored 55 goals and provided 14 assists last season in their league games. Olise, 22, has just been bought for 53 million euros by Bayern Munich.

For its part, Spain is coming off the back of being the UEFA EURO champion and wants to continue celebrating. It has great players who are regular starters with their teams, such as Alejandro Baena, Pablo Barrios, Sergio Camello, or Eric García, but the stars are probably two of the youngest: Pau Cubarsí (17) and Fermín López (21), the latter a few days ago champion in Berlin.

Meanwhile, Argentina has a great team, but it is not convincing. Fans do not like Javier Mascherano’s work as a coach and think that it is a wasted opportunity with a great generation that has Thiago Almada, who is already a world champion, as its standard bearer, but that was reinforced with other world and American champions such as Julián Álvarez, Nicolás Otamendi, and Gerónimo Rulli. They were already Olympic champions in 2004 and 2008, with Mascherano as a player.

Olympic Games Paris 2024: Soccer Tournament Preview – Outside picks

Much attention to Paraguay, which comes from winning the South American Pre-Olympic and dreams of its second Olympic medal as a country.The stars of this team are undoubtedly Julio Enciso and Diego Gómez, 20 and 21 years old, respectively. The midfield duo is very talented, even the Brighton player was in the most recent Copa America.

The United States is also one of the teams dreaming of pulling off a surprise. With many young players, the North American giant has Benjamin Cremaschi, one of the youngest players of the tournament, as one of its great stars, and watch out for Dorde Mihailovic, who is one of the over 23 reinforcements and although he is not very well known, he is having a great season with Colorado Rapids.

Finally, let’s mention the Dominican Republic, which made a great surprise by winning one of the two CONCACAF slots after reaching the final of the pre-Olympic and losing to the United States (6-0). Winger Junior Firpo is the most experienced player, but let’s pay attention to Peter Gonzalez, who played the past six months on loan at Valencia and did well.

Women’s Tournament top contenders

In the women’s event, it will be a very close fight, mainly between the United States and Spain. Although the Europeans are the world champions, the Americans are a step ahead.

Without Alex Morgan, which was a big surprise, the team coached by England’s Emma Hayes brings a mix of young players and veterans, including attackers Catarina Macario (24) and Sophia Smith (23), as well as midfielder Lindsey Horan (30). They have won four of the seven gold medals in this discipline, although, in the last two Olympic Games, they did not reach the final.

Spain, on the other hand, is making its debut in the tournament and arrives as the reigning world champion, beating England 1-0 in the final in Australia last year.After all the turmoil with the federation’s president, the Europeans arrived motivated after the triumph of their male counterparts at Euro 2024.

Catalan Aitana Bonmatí, the current Golden Ball winner, arrives as a great figure of the team and the tournament, but there are other stars such as Alexia Putellas or the player of Tigres of Mexico, Jennifer Hermoso.

And let’s not forget Canada, the reigning Olympic champions, who lost 1-0 to the United States in the final of the qualifying tournament with a penalty kick goal by Alex Morgan. With several players in the best European teams, especially in defense, it is a very solid team.

Olympic Games Paris 2024: Soccer Tournament Preview – Outside picks

Colombia is one of those teams that is havinggreat growth despite not having a good local women’s league. The arrival of Linda Caicedo to Real Madrid and Mayra Ramirez to Chelsea gave a plus to this team that was runner-up of America, losing in the final against Brazil 1-0 after a penalty goal.

And there is also Brazil. With Marta at the helm, who will make history by participating in her sixth Olympic Games, the Canarinha wants to