Olympics: USA 4 - 2 France: Poor start but Americans show why they are the champions

HAMPDEN bore witness to an historic event yesterday, no question. Not because, in playing host to women’s football, the stadium staged the first Olympic event held on Scottish soil (the yachting in 1908 doesn’t count). And not because of the major diplomatic incident that was caused ahead of the second game by the Hampden presentation organisers showing the South Korean flag on the big screen instead of the North Korean flag: a calamitous mistake which, for more than half an hour, led to the North Korean players refusing to take the field for their game against Colombia.

No, what was truly historic was that yesterday must have been the first occasion that 24,000 Scots received buckshee tickets and, on a glorious summer’s afternoon, didn’t bother to use them even just for a nosey. Perhaps they did, but by late evening they were still trying to negotiate their way through stadium security. Or maybe the tickets allowed them to become stadium security for the day, so multitudinous were those standing-trying-to-look-awake personnel.

The vast majority of the 9,000 punters out of the 35,000 who were given free tickets that did show, and made up an 18,090 attendance when paying customers were added, missed out on the flag furore. They left after watching reigning Olympic champions, the USA, defeat France despite finding themselves 2-0 down inside 14 minutes, and would have toddled off home believing they have been part of a mildly diverting sporting occasion.

Instead, what happened proved to be a political palaver in which cultural sensitivities were trampled all over. At least the Scottish Football Association can claim to have had no part in an almighty balls-up in their backyard.

The USA players merely turned up, showed why they have won gold at the past two Olympics and returned to their hotel knowing that they had come through what will surely be their biggest test in Group E with flying colours.

They would have delighted in the warmth that exuded from the sparsely-populated stands. There wasn’t so much a Hampden roar as a Hampden shrill as they recovered after a horrendous opening. It was a curiously kick-and-rush affair punctuated by schoolgirl defending. The French first benefited from injudicious play by those entrusted with goal protection, then collapsed in the face of the same.

Goalkeeper Hope Solo is one of the stars of the US team. According to her manager Pia Sundhage, she wasn’t seeing stars or anything else by way of clear vision because of the sun in allowing a saveable 25-yard drive from Gaetane Thiney to elude her after 12 minutes. Two minutes later, the ball bobbled around the US penalty box before Marie-Laurie Delie gave it a fair old biff to find the net via a slight deflection.

That two-goal advantage lasted only five minutes. Then the French were undone by a corner to the back post that Abby Wambach rose to meet and direct back between the posts. Both sides struggled to put together any meaningful passing moves but the US didn’t require one to restore parity just after the half-hour. A punt by the goalkeeper bounced once before dropping to golden girl Alex Morgan, who managed to get goalside of her marker, Ophelie Meilleroux. A “world class goal” Sundhage called it, gilding the lily enormously.

Substitute Carli Lloyd netted the third in 56 minutes with a 20-yard shot and the win was guaranteed ten minutes later when Morgan tapped in from a yard after France were cut open by the impressive Megan Rapinoe. It was a curious evening, but Japanese referee Sachiko Yamagishi did her best to bring an air of familiarity to it with some terrible calls. She should have awarded three penalties and missed Boxx receiving a boot in the face in the lead-up to the second goal.