USA To Olympic QFs, but Inconsistency Stymies Advancement
USA To Olympic QFs, but Inconsistency Stymies Advancement
The USA men's team didn't make the semifinals in Paris.
They did fairly well over their first two days, eking a tie out of France and a win out of Uruguay on Thursday.
That 33-17 win was enough to get them into the quarterfinals, but it was far from dominant. Perry Baker exploded for four tries and Stephen Tomasin was a workhorse and perfect on conversions. Lucas Lacamp added the other try.
The four tries in a game was an Olympic record.
"At the end of the day, it's not about me, it's about the team," said Baker after the game. "If you look at those tries, every one came from someone doing their job, and my job is just trying to finish for those guys. That's what it's about. It's a team effort all the way around. It comes from a team effort and those guys always trying to find a way to free me away."
Bit the euphoria didn't last. The USA lost 18-0 to Australia in a very competitive game in which Australia couldn't get out of penalty trouble, and the USA kept making crucial handling errors. Three very promising attacking opportunities were lost due to balls being lost forward. Another was lost due to a misfire on a lineout throw.
Australia's second try came from a possibly offside play, but the Wallabies were the better team. Their defense was very good and the USA didn't look like they were going to score. Baker, after a big game against Uruguay, was taken out of the game by Australia's stifling defense. Yes they scored a penalty at the end of the game and a try when the Eagles were just trying to come away with something with time completely expired. Really it was a 10-0 game.
Malacchi Esdale's try-saving tackle was one of the USA's highlights.
"That was a full on battle and unfortunately whilst we played like gladiators in defense," said USA Head Coach Mike Friday, "Too many silly possession errors never allowed us to get into the game and enabled Australia to build pressure. The boys character and grit to keep fighting for everything was first class and is not in question and at times we deserved more than we were given but that is sevens rugby. We are sorry and disappointed for all the USA supporters that we couldn’t push into the medal matches for them. We will have to work through the disappointment this next 36 hours to pick ourselves up and get ready to represent and play Ireland on Saturday."
Regardless, it's the 5th-place semifinals on Saturday against Ireland at 9AM ET live on Peacock. It was a wild quarterfinals elsewhere, too. The #8 seed South Africa ran out to a 14-0 lead and held off #1 seed New Zealand. France ran out to a 21-0 lead, saw Argentina storm back, and then ran out to clock before Antoine Dupont scored to end it 26-14. Fiji had to come back to beat Ireland in a massive battle where the Fijian flair was overshadowed by their defense.
Hard-luck Samoa (who were good enough to be in the top eight) slammed Japan and Kenya edged Uruguay, so it will be Uruguay vs Japan for 11th and Samoa vs Kenya for 9th.
USA plays Ireland and New Zealand plays Argentina in the 5th-place semis.
And going for the medals are France vs South Africa and Fiji vs Australia.
Ultimately for the USA this is what they've been all year, very good in flashes, and usually good at some things, but also sorely lacking in others. They just couldn't find all the pieces of the puzzle at the right time.
