The Olympic team are salvaging a miserable summer for US men’s soccer

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.

This means the US national team has reached the knockout stages for the first time since Sydney in 2000 and will face Morocco in the quarterfinals on Friday in Paris. Oubliez the Copa fear; embrace Olympic optimism. Here we have an American team that is exceeding its historical standards.

The 18-player squad, led by Belgrade-born Marko Mitrović, features a balanced mix of players from Europe and the US. It is a testament to Berhalter’s efforts to revitalize the squad, as all but three players have earned first-team starting places.

With most of the seniors in their prime and playing for leading European clubs, the US doesn’t really need a lot of new players. The main requirement is that the players they already have can play better against strong opponents.

While the senior squad has been relatively stable under Berhalter, his departure, combined with the positive impression this tournament has made, offers new hope for a breakthrough for some of Mitrović’s squads. A new senior coach is likely to arrive with few preconceptions and may be inclined to shake up a team that has begun to stagnate under the old boss.

After firing an American coach with a relatively modest resume and little name recognition outside the US – restrictions that gave ammunition to critics – Fox Sports reported that Matt Crocker, the U.S. Soccer executive who had rehired and fired Berhalter, was in Europe in early July looking for a well-known foreign manager.

Any potential candidates who watched Guinea’s disciplined dismantling will have been impressed by Đorđe Mihailović’s magnificent free kick that put the US ahead on Tuesday, a lead that was further extended by two goals from 21-year-old winger Kevin Paredes.

With his frequent appearances in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg and as the reigning U.S. Young Male Player of the Year, Paredes is no surprise and will certainly be on the radar of the next senior coach. Mihailović, who has been controversially offered the creative edge over Real Salt Lake’s Diego Luna, is a more doubtful candidate to make the senior team.

Mitrović was coaching the Chicago Fire when Mihailović made his MLS debut for the club in 2017. Mihailović’s first international appearance came at age 20 in 2019, when he scored against Panama in what was Berhalter’s first match in charge. But his rising star faded and he racked up just 10 caps, five of which were for what was essentially a reserve team in last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup. Now 25 and an overage pick on the Olympic roster, he has failed to deliver on his early promise on a consistent basis. He’s coming off a productive season with the Colorado Rapids after spending just a year with Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, but it’s difficult for an American in MLS these days to earn a spot on a senior USMNT roster with a European focus.

The U.S. opened its Olympic campaign with a 3-0 loss to pre-tournament favorite France in a match that remained scoreless until the 61st minute, but recovered to crush New Zealand 4-1 in its second group match. Tuesday saw another convincing victory to secure second place in Group A, albeit against a nation that has never won an Olympic medal in any sport and whose lineup looked porous without its injured star, former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keïta.

Venezia midfielder and captain Tanner Tessmann was an active and effective presence for the US, and goalkeeper Patrick Schulte was solid and made a nice save in the closing minutes, but not all the news was positive.

Orlando City striker Duncan McGuire, a second-half substitute, has done little to indicate he’s ready to step up. Venezia’s Gianluca Busio, who suffered a hamstring injury against New Zealand, has been unavailable. And, more broadly, the presence of two aging central defenders, Walker Zimmerman, a key member of the Qatar 2022 squad, and Miles Robinson (the only Olympian also selected for the Copa), underscores an absence: the dearth of highly regarded young players for a problem position where Berhalter has come to rely on 36-year-old Tim Ream.

Although Morocco defeated the US 1-0 in a Friendly match under 23 in November last year and finished top of Group B ahead of Argentina, and New Zealand and Guinea were weak opponents, the US have shown enough composure and potential to give reason for optimism that they can improve on their fourth-place finish in Australia from almost a quarter century ago, when one of the forwards was a promising 18-year-old named Landon Donovan who later prove oneself useful at three World Cups.