Key events
12 minutes: NBC commentators speculate that since the action has been moved to Paris, there must be some USA fans in the stadium somewhere. We didn’t hear or see them. Moroccan fans dominate the stands.
Akhomach finds space in the penalty area and Miles Robinson comes around to block a pass for a corner.
11 minutes: Morocco is getting a bit impatient in attack and plays down the left side of the attack, but just goes over the back line.
10 minutes: Richardson, son of an American basketball player, wins the ball from Paredes and holds off two American attackers before clearing the ball to safety. Well done.
9 min: CHANCEsort of. The free kick floats to Zimmerman, and the big defender heads it to Aaronson, who fires the ball just wide. Aaronson was clearly offside, however, and the flag is rightly raised.
8 minutes: Strange, unnecessary foul on the ball by Ezzalzouli, who apparently thought he could hit Paredes without the referee noticing. He couldn’t. Free kick from 30 meters, close to the right flank.
7 minutes: Tolkin eventually breaks the Moroccan series of passes and passes the ball to Aaronson, who commits a foul.
6 minutes: Tolkin is waved back. Morocco retain possession and drive the ball around with great confidence.
5 minutes: A sub warms up for the US. Really? They’re going to get an injury that changes the lineup on an uncontested header?
4 minutes: Hakimi bursts forward into the Moroccan attack. He earns a corner. It is headed away by Tolkin, who immediately falls to the ground. It looks like he headed the ball with the top of his skull, which is not the way to do it.
We have a comment about Sachin Shah’s national anthems: “Morocco won the anthem sing-off. Half of our team seems unsure of the lyrics.”
They probably just didn’t want to cause more whistling. And besides, as a semi-professional musician I have to say that our national anthem is difficult to sing.
1 minute: Corner kick, and a foul is called, apparently on Zimmerman. The replay shows he was holding his shirt the entire time he was running into the box. The brutality.
Kick-off: And after the opening whistle, there is immediately an incessant whistling from the audience, which will certainly not be on the side of the American team.
About that match against Argentina (and today’s)…
It seems like ages ago, doesn’t it? It was before the opening ceremony.
This is what happened…
Cristian Medina scored the apparent equalizer in the 16th minute of injury time. Yes, 16th.
A field invasion followed.
The field was cleared.
The stadium was evacuated. All spectators were asked to pack their belongings and leave.
More than an hour later, play resumed – but first a VAR check! Medina was found offside.
A few minutes later the official whistle blew and anyone who left the stadium thinking they had seen a 2-2 draw must have been surprised when they heard later that day, or even the day after, that Morocco had actually won.
Ready for a twist?
Today’s referees are Yael Falcon and assistant referees Maximiliano del Yesso and Facundo Rodriguez.
From Argentina.
The fourth official and reserve official are from New Zealand. The VAR crew are from Spain and China.
But is there any chance that someone from Morocco will mention the referee’s nationality in case of controversial decisions?
Morocco line-up
Goalkeeper: Munir El Kajoui (RS Berkane/MAR), a 35-year-old who has played much of his career in Spain and Turkey
Defense (left to right): Zakaria El Ouahdi (Genk/BEL), Mehdi Boukamir (Charleroi/BEL), Oussama El Azzouzi (Bologna/ITA), captain Achraf Hakimi (PSG/FRA)
Centre/Defensive Mid: Oussama Targhalline (Le Havre/FRA), Amir Richardson (Stade Reims/FRA)
Midfield: Abde Ezzalzouli (Real Betis/ESP), Bilal El Khanouss (Genk/BEL), Ilias Akhomach (Villarreal/ESP)
Striker: Soufiane Rahimi (Al-Ain/KSA)
Hakimi and Rahimi are the older players, next to Munir.
Most of the starting line-up would miss the next game if they were booked today. Even the goalkeeper. The exceptions are Boukamir, Ezzalzouli and El Azzouzi.
This team reached this stage by beating a fan-favorite Argentinean side with several players who had just won the Copa America. The match was… bizarre. See next post. Rahimi had both goals in the 2-1 decider. They lost 2-1 to Ukraine on a goal deep into injury time, with Rahimi again the Moroccan scorer.
Richardson opened the scoring in the 3-0 win over Iraq, Rahimi followed and Ezzalzouli provided an insurance goal in the 36th minute.
Transfer market lists Hakimi (60 million euros), El Khanouss (30 million), Akhomach (15 million) and substitute Eliesse Ben Seghir (Monaco/FRA, 15 million) are the team’s most valuable players.
Richardson was born in France. His father is former American basketball player Micheal Ray Richardson.
American setup
Goalkeeper: Patrick Schulte (Columbus/USA)
Defense (left to right): John Tolkin (NY Red Bulls/USA), Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati/USA), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC/USA), Nathan Harriel (Philadelphia/USA). Zimmerman and Robinson are regulars in the US senior team and two of the three ‘overage’ players on the team. Zimmerman is in fact 31.
Midfield: Captain Tanner Tessmann (Venezia/ITA) in a defensive/No. 6 role, then Jack McGlynn (Philadelphia/USA) and Djordje Mihailovic (Colorado/USA), who is having a breakout tournament as one of the “overage” players
Forward: Griffin Yow (Westerlo/BEL), Paxten Aaronson (Vitesse/NED), Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg/GER)
Not long ago, most American players of this age played college soccer.
Paredes and Tessmann both receive a yellow card and will miss the semi-final if they receive another yellow card.
In the decisive group stage match against Guinea, Paredes had two goals. Mihailovic had the other. Mihailovic also scored the opening goal in the 4-1 win against New Zealand, Zimmerman came into the crowd to score and Gianluca Busio added a third after 30 minutes. Aaronson added a goal in the second half.
The only change from the match against Guinea: McGlynn replaces Maximilian Dietz in midfield.
Preamble
The US-Australia rivalry is in full swing in the pool.
The United States men’s national soccer team is in the knockout stage.
Is it 2000 again? Have we finally had a long-delayed Y2K glitch and ended up being transported back in time 24 years? Oh, to be that young again…
If you don’t know much about Olympic men’s soccer, here’s the story: Each of these teams represents the best players from their country, consisting of three players of each age and 15 or 16 players under the age of 23 that their professional clubs deem surplus to requirements to release for this tournament.
But while the strange rules mean that these teams aren’t as strong as their full national teams – there’s no Christian Pulisic or Weston McKennie among the “overage” players, and full national team players under the age of 23 like Gio Reyna, Yunus Musah, Joe Scally and Ricardo Pepi are currently elsewhere – these are still successful players. The Sydney Olympics were a bit of a coming-out party for Landon Donovan, John O’Brien and other players who helped the U.S. men reach the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup.
Will any of these players be ready to make an impact in two years? Or will any of them leave France with a medal?
Beau will be there shortly. In the meantime, here’s how the American men have fared so far:
Here come the kids, saving the summer for American men’s soccer.
The most consequential move will still be the appointment of a new head coach of the senior team, with US Soccer currently scouring Europe for a big-name candidate. But the Olympic team provides the first jolt of positivity and forward momentum, injecting new life into a battered program that needs to be revived for a home World Cup in 2026.
In a month that began with the US alarmingly failing to advance to the group stage of the Copa América – a flop that cost Gregg Berhalter his job – the Olympic team is flourishing in France. The Under-23s secured a rare spot in the knockout stages on Tuesday with an efficient 3-0 win over Guinea in Saint-Étienne.
As a result, the USMNT has reached the knockout stage for the first time since Sydney in 2000 and will face Morocco in the quarterfinals on Friday in Paris. Forget the Copa fears; embrace the Olympic optimism. Here is an American team surpassing its historical standards.
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