The highly anticipated Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics will take place on Friday, but the real competition will begin a few days earlier, led, as it has for years, by the men’s and women’s football tournaments.

The U.S. qualified for both tournaments at these Games, and the U.S. men’s team will begin play Wednesday night with a group stage match against France, while the U.S. women’s team will play its opening match against Zambia the night after.

All teams in the tournaments are hoping to qualify for the medal games, which will be played at PSG’s Parc des Princes on August 10 (women) and August 9 (men). With Olympic soccer tournaments being a bit different than the competitions most fans are used to seeing, here’s a Q&A on what to expect.

So… is Olympic football a big deal?

Absolutely, especially on the women’s side. Only 12 teams qualify, and everyone brings their best players — essentially, it’s a mini-World Cup. The USWNT will be captained by Lindsey Horan and will feature young stars like Trinity Rodman and Naomi Girma, as well as veterans like Rose Lavelle and Crystal Dunn. (Alex Morgan is out — more on that later.)

Catarina Macario, who was playing for Chelsea under new coach Emma Hayes and was hoping to participate in the Olympics for the second time, left the squad due to a knee injury and was replaced by Lynn Williams.

On the men’s side, the situation is different. The men’s tournament is not on FIFA’s official calendar, meaning club teams do not have to release their best players to qualify. To compensate, the Olympics run an under-23 competition, where the 16 participating teams bring squads full of the sport’s youngest stars, with three players on each team who are over the age of 23.

And let’s answer the question right away: No, Argentina is not bringing Lionel Messi, and France did not include Kylian Mbappé in their squad.

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What about the US men’s team? Is Christian Pulisic playing?

The U.S. men haven’t qualified since 2008, so there’s definitely excitement in the federation to see them in this event. Technically a youth national team and not a full USMNT, the team is coached by Marko Mitrovic, who has been coaching with US Soccer since 2022 and previously served as an assistant coach with Reading (English Football League) and Chicago Fire (Major League Soccer).

He has selected a roster that includes some young players that USMNT fans already know (Gianluca Busio, Kevin Paredes) as well as potential rising stars (Paxten Aaronson, Taylor Booth). Goalkeeper Gabriel “Gaga” Slonina, who played for Dutch club Eupen on loan from Chelsea last season, is one of two goalkeepers on the roster.

Three redundant positions — note — were not used to bring in Team USA’s biggest stars, meaning Pulisic was not selected. Defenders Walker Zimmerman and Miles Robinson and point guard Djordje Mihailovic will fill the redundant positions.

What would be a good outcome for the US teams?

As you might expect, those answers are not the same. For the USWNT, the sting of an early elimination from the 2023 World Cup remains, and this is the first major tournament since the program underwent a major overhaul. Normally, you’d think a new coach like Hayes would have some flexibility in terms of expectations, but with this group and this fan base, there’s not much wiggle room: Attending medal games seems like the bare minimum here.

It’s probably a lower bar for expectations for the men. The draw was good for the U.S. men, although they opened group stage play with a match against France, and the schedule included matches against New Zealand and Guinea. They can be expected to advance to the playoffs.

Can they make a medal run? Absolutely. But there is no doubt that the pressure will be lower than what the women’s team will face and will allow the team to play with a little more freedom.

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So, who are the favorites?

On the women’s side, the USWNT is hoping to make Hayes’ first tournament a big success, but there’s absolutely no guarantee the Americans will take gold. This is certainly a transitional tournament for the U.S. squad — as evidenced by Morgan missing her first Olympics since 2008 — and they sit in fifth place in FIFA’s latest rankings, their lowest since the rankings began in 2003.

Three of their top five squads are in the field (England are not fielding an Olympic team). World Cup champions Spain are expected to field a starting 11 from the last World Cup in France, including Aitana Bonmati and Jenni Hermoso. Hosts France and Wendie Renard will be looking to impress at home, while Alexandra Popp and eight-time European champions Germany are back after missing out on the last Olympics. Canada won gold in Tokyo last time out and have medalled at the last three Olympic tournaments.

On the men’s side, France will be coached by legend Thierry Henry and feature Alexandre Lacazette, while Argentina will be managed by Javier Mascherano and feature a number of players from their World Cup-winning senior squad, including Julián Álvarez, Thiago Almada, Nicolás Otamendi and Gerónimo Rulli. They will be hard to beat.

What is its format?

Each team will play three group stage matches. On the women’s side, the top two teams and the top two third-placed teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals, followed by the semifinals and then the bronze (semifinal losers) and gold (semifinal winners) medal matches.

On the men’s side, only the top two teams in each group advance to the knockout rounds. As with the women’s side, there are quarterfinals and semifinals before the medal matches.

In terms of extra time, group stage matches will end in a draw, but in the qualifiers, there will be two 15-minute extra time periods if the score is tied at the end of full time. If the teams are still tied after extra time, the match will go to a penalty shootout.

Each team is allowed five substitute players throughout the match, and a sixth player is added if the match goes into extra time.

Will VAR be used at the Olympics?

Yes. VAR was used for the first time at the 2020 Olympics, so it will be operational at both the men’s and women’s tournaments in France. Of the 89 officials appointed by FIFA, 20 are video match officials who will work exclusively with the VAR system.

How are so many matches played in Paris?

No, it’s not. Olympic football matches are usually played in stadiums in the host city’s home country, with matches also being played in six other cities: Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice, Saint-Etienne, Lyon and Nantes.

The U.S. men and women will play most of their group-stage matches in southern France, with the women playing two matches in Marseille and one match in Nice, and the men playing two matches in Marseille and one match in Saint-Etienne.