U.S. Men’s Soccer advance to knockout stage in Paris will face Morocco Friday in Olympic Quarter-finals

A dominant performance from the U.S. Men’s Olympic soccer team proved enough to secure a spot in Friday’s knockout stage quarterfinals.  Two goals from 21-year-old Kevin Paredes were the difference in the game, while Djordje Mihailovic added a brilliant free-kick which launched USA over Guinea with the final score of 3 to 0.  Placing second in Group A now sets a match against a Morocco team that took first-place in Group B.  Morocco has experience on their Olympic roster with Achraf Hakimi that does play for Paris Saint-Germain in France.  The only loss that came for Morocco was against Ukraine on Saturday afternoon in what was a hard-fought game that Morocco came up short 2 to 1. 

USA must learn from their opening match defeat against France heading into Friday’s game against Morocco and not make mistakes in their own half with turnovers, bad timed passes and will need to take advantage of scoring opportunities if they will advance in the Olympic knockout stage.  Six shots on target will not please the United States coaching staff, and possessing the ball only 41% as opposed to Guinea’s 59% are key factors that will need to improve if USA will move past Morocco.  Friday’s game will take place at Parc des Princes, Paris.