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

Here come the kids, salvaging the summer for American men’s soccer.

The most consequential action will still be the appointment of a new senior team head coach, with US Soccer currently scouring Europe for a big-name candidate . But the Olympic side are providing the first jolt of positivity and forward momentum, boosting a bruised program that needs reviving before a home World Cup in 2026.

A month that began with the US alarmingly failing to advance from the Copa América group stage – a flop that cost Gregg Berhalter his job – the Olympic side are flourishing in France. The Under-23s secured a rare berth in the knockout phase on Tuesday with an efficient 3-0 win over Guinea in Saint-Étienne.

As a result, the USMNT have reached the knockout stage for the first time since Sydney in 2000 and will face Morocco in the quarter-finals in Paris on Friday. Oubliez the Copa angst; embrassez the Olympic optimism. Here we have an American team that’s exceeding its historical norms.

Related: Six USMNT players who can boost their World Cup prospects at the Olympics

Coached by the Belgrade-born Marko Mitrović, the 18-man roster has an even split of European- and US-based players and bears evidence of Berhalter’s efforts to rejuvenate the senior squad, since all but three of them have senior caps.

With a senior class largely entering their prime and on the books of leading European clubs, the US aren’t really in need a host of new players; the chief requirement is that the ones they already have play better against strong opponents.

However, though the main roster was relatively settled under Berhalter, his departure, combined with the positive impression fostered by this tournament, offers fresh hope of a breakthrough for some of Mitrović’s selections. A new senior team coach will presumably arrive with few preconceptions and may be inclined to shake up a team that was starting to stagnate under the old boss.

After dismissing an American coach with a relatively modest résumé and scant name recognition outside the US – limitations that handed ammunition to critics – Fox Sports reported that Matt Crocker, the US Soccer sporting director who rehired and fired Berhalter , spent time in Europe earlier in July searching for a well-known foreign manager.

Any prospective candidates watching the disciplined dismantling of Guinea would have been impressed by the excellent free kick from Đorđe Mihailović that gave the US the lead on Tuesday, one extended by two goals from 21-year-old winger Kevin Paredes.

With frequent Bundesliga appearances for Wolfsburg and as the reigning US Soccer young male player of the year, Paredes is no surprise package and sure to be on the radar of the next senior coach. Mihailović, contentiously selected to provide creativity ahead over Real Salt Lake’s Diego Luna, is a more dubious candidate to crack the senior squad.

Mitrović was a coach at the Chicago Fire when Mihailović made his MLS debut for the club in 2017. Mihailović’s first senior international appearance came aged 20 in 2019 when he scored against Panama in what was Berhalter’s first game. But his rising star dimmed and only 10 more caps have followed, five for what was essentially a reserve team in last summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup. Now 25, and in the Olympic squad as an overage pick, he has failed to fulfil his early promise on a consistent basis. He is enjoying a productive season with the Colorado Rapids after lasting only a year at the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, but these days it is hard for an American in MLS to earn a place in a senior USMNT squad with a European center of gravity.

The US opened their Olympic campaign with a 3-0 loss to France , the tournament favorites, in a game that was goalless until the 61st minute, but rebounded to smash New Zealand 4-1 in their second group fixture. Tuesday saw another convincing win to secure second place in Group A, albeit against a country that has never won an Olympic medal in any sport, with a lineup that looked porous without its injured star, the former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keïta.

Related: Simone Biles leads USA to women’s gymnastics team gold at Paris Olympics

Midfielder and captain Tanner Tessmann of Venezia was a busy and effective presence for the US, and goalkeeper Patrick Schulte was solid and made a sharp late save, though not all the news was positive.

The Orlando City striker Duncan McGuire, a second-half substitute, has done little to indicate he is ready to step up a level. Gianluca Busio of Venezia, who suffered a hamstring injury against New Zealand, was unavailable. And, more generally, the presence of two overage center backs, Walker Zimmerman, a key member of the Qatar 2022 squad, and Miles Robinson (the lone Olympian also picked for the Copa), underlines an absence: the shortage of highly rated youngsters for a problem position at which Berhalter came to depend on the 36-year-old Tim Ream.

Though Morocco beat the US 1-0 in an Under-23 friendly last November and finished top of Group B ahead of Argentina, and New Zealand and Guinea were weak opponents, the US have shown enough poise and potential to give cause for optimism that they can better their fourth-place finish in Australia nearly a quarter-century ago, when one of the forwards was a promising 18-year-old named Landon Donovan who went on to prove himself useful at three World Cups.