The USA Men’s 7s team going to Paris is, not surprisingly, a blend of old and new.

The that blend has perhaps been an ingredient in the USA’s weird season, in which they were hurt somewhat by the new format of the SVNS World Series. In that format, a losing quarterfinal team gets tracked either into the 5th-6th game or the 7th-8th game based on criteria not readily publicized. We think it’s season-long points difference, but whatever it is, it’s not something even remotely logical (such as margin of defeat in the quarterfinals). The result was that the Eagles, whenever they lost a quarterfinal match, never got to play for 5th. They always had to play for 7th.

So while you might look on the season as somewhat up-and-down (a phrase we at GRR have used a lot when talking about the Men’s 7s Eagles), Mike Friday, in speaking to reporters on Monday, had a different opinion.

USA Men's Team Named for Paris Olympics

“We got out of our pool six out of seven tournaments,” he said. And that is absolutely correct. The Eagles made the Top Eight in all events save Cape Town. “But our Achilles heel throughout the season has been, when it comes to those quarterfinal matches is making mistakes at critical moments which has cost us. We have got to find a way to be super consistent, or more consistent, in those moments.”

Captain Kevon Williams echoed those sentiments, and it is true that while getting into that quarterfinal mix is huge, you’ve got to win that quarterfinal. In those six instances where the Eagles did make a QF in the 2023-24 season, they won one quarterfinal.

But they were 4-0 in the requalification tournament and they did make the semis in Hong Kong. 

Friday has not been shy about discussing his disdain for the requalification tournament, as the format made it come down to just one game, making pool play almost irrelevant.

Even so, Friday shook up the lineup there because in Madrid, as well as an invitational tournament in London, and then recent scrimmages against Japan.

“We made tactical selections for Madrid so we could give people game time,” said Friday. “But that was a tournament where I was super-confident, as much as you can be in a game of roulette, that my squad was capable of going out there and doing the job. We made some tactical decisions to give players some opportunities.”

It also put the pressure on more players, and there will be pressure in Paris.

“In the Olympics it is about minimizing mistakes, said Friday. “But the nature of the rollercoaster season we’ve had. There’s obviously some resilience amongst the boys to deal with the ups and downs.”

So there were ups and downs. Really what those ups and downs were can be seen in the difference between Day One and Day Two. Leaving aside Cape Town, the Eagles were 13-5 on Day One and 4-9 on Day Two, with a 1-5 record in quarterfinals. Those are the ups and downs. 

And in the Olympics, you can’t afford to be up and down.