US men's soccer team reaches first Olympics quarterfinal in 24 years

This year’s U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team already made history by reaching the tournament for the first time since 2008. On Tuesday, it wrote another great chapter, booking its first trip to the quarterfinals since 2000 with a 3-0 win over Guinea.

Djordje Mihailovic opened the scoring with a bulls-eye free kick in the 14th minute; Paxten Aaronson sprung Kevin Paredes for a terrific goal in the 31st; and Union midfielder Jack McGlynn teed up Paredes for a game-sealing smash in the 75th.

The 2000 U.S. squad included many players who went on to greater heights, including Landon Donovan, Josh Wolff, John O’Brien, Tim Howard, Ben Olsen and Chris Albright. We’ll have to wait to see how many of this year’s Olympians do the same, especially since many stars of the senior U.S. team are still young.

But this Olympic team has already achieved a feat that no U.S. men’s squad has in a century of Olympic participation: two group stage wins. Thursday’s victory followed a 4-1 rout of New Zealand, giving the Americans six points (2-0-1) and second place in Group A.

The group winner was no surprise: host France won all three of its contests, including a 3-0 victory over the U.S. But the tournament’s other groups have been full of drama, and that has created some surprising quarterfinal matchups.

Morocco won Group B, and will be the Americans’ quarterfinal opponent on Friday at Paris’ fabled Parc des Princes (9 a.m. ET, English TV TBD, Telemundo, Peacock). The Atlas Lions upset pre-tournament favorite Argentina in controversial fashion on the Olympics’ opening day, were upset themselves by Ukraine, then cruised past Iraq on Tuesday.

Though Morocco doesn’t have the individual star power of Argentina and Manchester City striker Julián Álvarez, it has plenty of firepower and a marquee leader in Paris Saint-Germain right-back Achraf Hakimi. His teammates from leagues in France, Spain, Italy and more have delivered seven goals in three games.

One of those players has American roots: forward Amir Richardson, of French club Reims. The 22-year-old midfielder’s father, Michael Ray Richardson, was the No. 4 pick in the 1978 NBA draft and played in the league for eight years. Amir’s mother is French-Moroccan, and though the U.S. recruited him at one point, he chose to play for Morocco.

The Morocco-U.S. winner will play Spain, which was upset, 2-1, by Egypt on Tuesday, or the Group D winner in the semifinals. Group D was to be settled later Tuesday, with leaders Japan facing Israel and Paraguay facing Mali. All four teams were still alive to advance at kickoff.

On the other side of the bracket, France will play Argentina in one quarterfinal, a matchup loaded with spice. Not only did those nations contest the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, but Argentina recently sparked outrage when some of its Copa América-winning players sang a song with a racist lyric about the French.

Argentina recovered from its opening loss with two wins afterward. Remarkably, the Albiceleste and Morocco finished with the same points total (6 from 2-0-1 records), goal difference (+3), and goals scored (6), so the head-to-head result broke the standings tie.

The France-Argentina winner will play Egypt or the Group D runner-up.