Defending champions Brazil advanced to the quarter-finals of the men's Olympic soccer tournament after a 3-1 victory over Saudi Arabia on Wednesday helped them top Group D while Ivory Coast booked their berth by sending Germany home.

Japan advanced after delivering the knockout blow to 10-man France with a 4-0 win to stay perfect in Group A. Takefusa Kubo, Hiroki Sakai, Koji Miyoshi and Daizen Maeda all scored for the rampant hosts while Randal Kolo Muani was sent off for France.

Men’s Olympic soccer is a weird experience. Not quite a major international as it is on the women’s side and not quite a full youth competition, the result is a bizarre amalgamation of young and old players on the 16 national team rosters. So before you wake up at 4 a.m. and wonder who in the holy name of Ted Lasso are these blokes running around in Japan, here’s a guide for the weird and notable over-age Olympic soccer players to watch this summer.

Argentina está de regreso a casa, con el trofeo de la Copa América en el equipaje. Después de más de 40 días de concentración, lo primero que hicieron los jugadores de la Albiceleste fue reencontrarse con sus familias. La reunión más mediática, obviamente, se produjo en Rosario, donde Antonela Roccuzzo saltó para abrazar y besar al héroe de esta gesta, su esposo, Lionel Messi.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni paid tribute to Lionel Messi on Saturday, praising his team captain and revealing he played in the Copa América win over Brazil with an injury.

"If you knew the way that he played in the Copa América you’d love him even more,” Scaloni told reporters after Argentina’s 1-0 win at the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro. “You can never do without a player like him, even when he is not fully fit like in this game and the previous one.”

El cuento era que Lionel Messi nunca había ganado un trofeo con la selección adulta de Argentina. Pero ese suplicio hoy se acabó. El "10" lideró a la Albiceleste en el Maracaná para derrotar a Brasil y conseguir la primera Copa América de la nación desde 1993.

Lionel Messi is finally a champion with Argentina. In his fifth major final in his 10th major tournament, Messi led La Albiceleste to a major international trophy, beating Brazil 1-0 in the 2021 Copa América final on Saturday night at the Maracanã. 

Maybe that will shut the naysayers up after years of hearing “yeah, but” when discussing Messi as the greatest player of all time.

And you could see what it meant to him, his teammates and his country. 

¡Maracanazo consumado!