Finally, the evil is deeper than expected. Last Saturday, starting their Olympic tournament with a heavy defeat against the United States (0/3), the Blues could still have the excuse of the first match, and the particularly impressive level of play of the American players that evening. But the thesis of the accident is no longer possible after the new defeat suffered by Earvin Ngapeth and others on Wednesday, this time against Argentina in five very tense sets (23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-25, 15-13). Already two defeats on the clock which, even interspersed with an easy victory against Tunisia on Monday (3/0), do not invite optimism while France will challenge Russia (Friday) and Brazil in turn. , Olympic title holder (Sunday). With the absolute necessity ofimpose at least once just to maintain the hope of a qualification for the quarter-finals.
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Laurent Tillie, the French coach, was therefore not wrong in asserting, on his arrival in Tokyo, that the only objective of his troops was to pass this first phase, for which they had inherited, as in Rio five years ago. years, of the group of death. For that, obviously, the former international had checked with the red marker the date of this Wednesday and this match against Argentina. But unfortunately, his players will have wasted too many opportunities during this meeting to hope for better. Thus, in the first set, well led by Jean Patry, the Blues took the lead (25-23) but behind, they did not succeed in really putting the head under the water to catchy Argentines. So that, initially tight (9-10), the second set suddenly turned to the lone rider of the South Americans,signing a 4-0 by seeing the Blues in the ropes (9-14 for a final score of 25-17).
Stunned for the account, it was going to take them more than a set to find their senses, the third escaping them just as irremediably (20-25). But with their backs to the wall, led two rounds to one, Trévor Clévenot's teammates, the only one to really float with his 24 points, found resources not to die and at the same time they took advantage of a big slack in Argentina to snatch a tie-break (25-15). This one started rather well for France which carried out the first the break (6-4) but Argentina returned quickly (8-8) before detaching itself in turn (12-10). And this time, France will not return, leaving the victory to the Gauchos (13-15). And maybe even the qualification,if the latter enforce logic against Tunisia and that France does not achieve one or two exploits against Russia and Brazil.