KASHIMA, Japan — In three games at the Tokyo Olympic soccer tournament, the United States scored pretty goals and poacher’s goals and, somehow, five offside goals.
On Tuesday the Americans scored no goals, and that, it turned out, was exactly what they needed. A workmanlike 0-0 tie with Australia on a humid, misty night delivered the United States — a medal favorite whose generational dominance was called into question last week — to the tournament’s knockout round, and to a quarterfinal against the Netherlands on Friday in Yokohama.
The Americans’ date against the Netherlands was confirmed around the time the team was set to arrive back at its hotel in Tokyo after grinding out a methodical, professional draw with Australia.