The men’s Olympic team have been defeated by the USA in their second group match at Paris 2024, losing 4-1 in Marseille. 

Darren Bazeley named an unchanged side for the fixture following the win in their opening game against Guinea, the only change came on the bench with Jesse Randall coming in to replace Isaac Hughes after recovering from injury. 

The USA started the better of the two sides, looking to bounce back from their opening game defeat to France, and within eight minutes had the lead with a Djordje Mihailovic penalty after a US player was fouled in the box. 

Four minutes later they made it two with a deflected shot falling to Walker Zimmerman to double the lead. 

Minutes later New Zealand were close to halving the deficit after Matt Garbett’s long-range effort was parried, falling to Tyler Bindon, but his header when just over the bar. 

The USA got a third in the 30th minute as a neat passing move found Gianluca Busio for a close range finish to give the Americans a comfortable lead at the break. 

The second half saw Aotearoa push for a way back into the game with half-time substitutes Jesse Randall and Oskar van Hattum coming on for Lachlan Bayliss and Jay Herdman. 

But it was the USA who claimed the next goal with Paxten Aaronson finding space in the New Zealand defence to finish via a deflection into the bottom corner. 

New Zealand upped the tempo and in the 78th minute got one back. 

Captain Matt Garbett picked out Jesse Randall in the box who turned and finished expertly into the top corner. 

The men’s Olympic next face France on 30 July KO 7pm (31 July KO 5am NZT) with qualification for the quarter-finals still all to play for. 


Article added: Saturday 27 July 2024