Mission impossible ahead of France: Nobody has defeated USA twice at the same Olympics

TOKYO (Japan) - The last time the United States won four straight gold medals in Olympic history was back in the 1950s and 1960s when they had a run of seven in a row. France will try to keep it that way.

As Luis Scola pointed out three days ago when he signed out, other than Argentina, all the other countries that managed to win Olympic gold ahead of the USA don't exist anymore. Those two were the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. If France manage to upset the odds and pick up gold in the Saitama Super Arena on Saturday, they would become only the fifth different Olympic champion.

Yes, we said upset. Coach Vincent Collet was quick to confirm the feeling. Despite France's memorable win on Game Day 1 in Japan, he still feels like Gregg Popovich has the better squad here.

"We know Team USA is the favorite of this Final as they have been favorite for the last couple of games. I hope we can play against them with the same fire and energy. We will try even if we know they are the favorite," France head coach said after handing Slovenia their first defeat with Luka Doncic in the lineup.

It's not just Collet's general feeling that the United States looked better over the last couple of games that will make life difficult for France. The numbers are also on their side because France will need to rewrite history to get the gold.

They won the first matchup and there have been previous slip-ups by the US over the previous editions of the Olympics. But they always knew how to bounce back - they have never lost twice to the same opponent at the same Olympic tournament.

The closest they came to doing that was in 2004. The United States lost to Lithuania 94-90 in group stage, and they met them again in Athens, in the battle for third place. Shawn Marion showed up that day, posting 22 points in 24 minutes to lead the Americans to a 104-96 win to avoid losing back-to-back games to Lithuania at the 2004 Games.

France are on a two-game winning streak against the USA, but over the course of two competitions. They won in the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 where they went on to take third place, and then on opening day in Tokyo 2020.

"The difference in celebration (now and in 2019) was this is just the group phase. We won one, but we could lose the next two and go home. The other one was a Quarter-Final, which was obviously different," Evan Fournier said in explaining why the French players didn't celebrate their 83-76 win in Saitama.

If you know anything about Fournier, you know that this is how he is built. He didn't celebrate winning the bronze in the World Cup two years ago. Even when Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot knocked down a big three-pointer to put France up five against Slovenia in the Quarter-Finals - one that drew oohs and ahhs from the stands - you could clearly see what Fournier was doing on the floor.

Fournier trying to calm his teammates down against Slovenia

No celebrations. Fournier's definitely putting out the feeling, the vibe, that he's not ready to settle for silver, either, judging by his words after the first win over the USA here:

"You have to compete with them. That's the message behind everything. We have to show these guys that we're not going to back down and they are just like us. They are better individually, but they can be beaten as a team."

France won that game by going big, with two centers in the lineup. Against Slovenia, they showed they can adapt to circumstances and played small-ball basketball, with Nicolas Batum and Guerschon Yabusele as speed bumpers to cut down on Slovenia's 95 possessions per game rhythm.

With Collet able to mix it up, Gregg Popovich will have a sizeable challenge ahead. Being a longtime proponent of international basketball, Popovich will enjoy the challenge ahead of him and his team, and repeat one more time that the gap between the USA and the rest of the world is not as big as the 15-4 score says in the gold medal count.

"People shouldn't be surprised that the French team or the Australian team or the Spanish team or the Lithuanian team... It doesn't matter who it is -- the gap in talent shrinks every year, as there are more and more great players all over the world," Popovich said last week. "You need to give the French team credit for playing well, they were more consistent than we were at both ends of the court. It's as simple as that."

Coach Pop's team looks much better now. The games against Spain and Australia proved it, especially when they had their runs late in the first half and early in the second. Against France, they can't afford another slow start, something that's been bothering them since day one here.

This will be the third time that the USA and France have a rendezvous on the final day of the Games. Back in 1948, USA won the Final 65-21 in London. In 2000, Vince Carter and the rest of the NBA players enjoyed an 85-75 win over France in the Sydney championship game.

USA and France had a battle in the Final in Sydney in 2000

Carter will be sitting courtside on Saturday, working as the TV commentator. But he's not the only connection to that Final, because Laurent Foirest is one of Vincent Collet's assistant coaches. Foirest had a mean left hand as a player, and he already is among the rare few to win medals for France both as a player and as a coach, across all sports.

The color was silver as a player. Maybe this time it goes gold, to circle up a career that has already hit platinum.

FIBA