MARSEILLE, France — Before each of their respective Olympic soccer matches, U.S. women’s team captain Lindsey Horan and Walker Zimmerman, the elder statesman on a young men’s squad, exchange text messages wishing one another luck.
For the first time since 2008, the men’s team joined the perennial women’s team in the tournament. And in a stroke of logistical fortune for the U.S. Soccer Federation and fans wishing to see both play, each side was drawn into first-round groups initially based in the south of France.
The teams were staying in hotels about four miles apart in this Mediterranean port city and shared the same training grounds in Martigues, a canal-graced town about 25 miles northwest of Marseille’s famous waterfront.