By
Eniola Olatunji

The Atlas Lions of Morocco on Friday at the Parc des Princes in Paris devoured the Yanks of the United States of America by a sparking 4-0 to stroll into the semifinal of the 28th games on Monday 5th August.

Soufiane Rahim opened scoring for Morocco in the 29th minute of the game via a penalty kick. He stands as the present highest goal scorer with 4 goals. His goal today is his 3rd penalty goal in the tournament having scored such against Argentina and Ukraine now USA.

On resumption of the 2nd half Abdessamad Ezzalzouli gave an assist to Ilias Akhomach to score the 2nd goal in the 63rd minute; Achraf  Hakimi scored the 3rd goal (his first in the tournament which he later celebrated with his son) in the 70th minute before Defender El Mahdi Maouboub scored the second penalty of the match to Morocco. The ball had touched the hands of an American defender and Ref Yael Falco Perez of Argentina went to consult VAR which approved the penalty.

Morocco will meet Spain in the semifinal on Monday at 5pm. The winner between France and Argentina will meet the winner between Egypt and Paraguay also in the semifinal at 8pm on Monday.  

Morocco with her 8th appearance at the Olympics had thrashed Argentina 2-1 in their first match; lost to Ukraine by the same margin and dazed Iraq 3-0. Warming up to the Olympics, Morocco lost to Ukraine on 22nd March 2024 and drew 2-2 with Belgium on 4th June 2024. Morocco had gotten to the 2nd round in 1972.

America with her 4th appearance lost the Bronze at the Sydney Olympics lost 0-3 to hosts France; slammed New Zealand 4-1 and bashed Africa’s entry Guinea 3-0. In the warm up of 25th March 2024 America played 2 -2 with France and lost to Japan 0-2. America had lost the Bronze then to Chile 0-2.

The only time USA and Morocco met at this age category was in a Friendly match on 21st January 2023 which Morocco won by a lone goal scored by Nadir in the 31st minute.

Spain at the Decines Champieu dismantled the computerized Japanese team 3-0 in the 2nd quarterfinals. Fermin Lopez got 2 goals in each half to record a brace. He scored via penalty in the 11th minute and received an assist from Sergio Gomez in the 74th minute for the 2nd goal before poor defending saw Abel Ruiz head home the 3rd goal from a corner kick in the 86th minute. 

Egypt the other hopeful African country for a medal topped group C with 7 points where Spain was 2nd with 6 points. Mali was 3rd in group D where Japan topped with 9 points and Paraguay 2nd with 6 points.

Egypt will tackle Paraguay at 6pm in another quarterfinal while the last quarterfinal match between hosts France and Argentina is at 8pm.

Already 72 goals have been scored in the Male football tournament that has seen 26 matches and as informed Soufiane Rahimi is the highest scorer with 5 goals. The only own goal of the tournament was scored by Hamidou Diallo of Mali when his country played Israel.

The current defending Champions, Brazil with two titles are out of the tournament. Britain and Hungary have three titles each. Nigeria’s Male team did not qualify for the Olympics.