USA Olympic men's soccer history: Timeline of last time USMNT won a medal, advanced to knockout round

Led by head coach Marko Mitrovic, the U.S. men's soccer team has achieved a monumental feat at the 2024 Olympic games in France.

With a 3-0 win over Guinea on Tuesday, the United States qualified to the knockout stage of the competition, something rarely achieved by the country throughout the history of this famed tournament.

While the U.S. women have dominated soccer at the Olympics, the men's side does not have a strong history of performance at this tournament.

The Sporting News takes you through what the United States has achieved in men's soccer at the Olympics and how this year's finish stands amongst its best results.

MORE: Full schedule, results, and standings for men's and women's soccer at 2024 Olympics in France

When was last time USA men's soccer reached Olympic knockout stage?

The U.S. men have successfully qualified for the knockout round of the 2024 Olympic games, defeating New Zealand and Guinea to finish second in Group A behind hosts France. It's a momentous achievement for the U.S. as it's just the second time in their history reaching past the group stage of an Olympic tournament.

Before the Paris games, the last time the United States men reached the knockout stage of an Olympic soccer competition was the 2000 games in Sydney, when they managed to finish fourth.

In that tournament, the U.S. topped Group C with five points, beating Kuwait and playing to draws with the Czech Republic and Cameroon. They would beat Japan on penalties in the quarterfinals before falling to Spain 3-1 in the semifinals and Chile 2-0 in the bronze medal match.

Prior to that, the U.S. men had never progressed past the group stage since the two-stage format was introduced in 1960.

Has USA men's soccer won an Olympic medal?

Technically, the United States men have medaled at an Olympic soccer competition, but that comes with a huge caveat.

The only ever Olympic medals won in U.S. men's soccer history both came way back in 1904, when national team competition had not yet been invented. Instead, the 1904 Olympics, hosted in St. Louis, featured a three-team round-robin that saw a trio of club teams participate.

One club hailed from Canada, while two of them entered from the United States, both located in host city St. Louis. The Canadian club, Galt FC, won the gold medal, pulverizing the other two teams by scorelines of 7-0 and 4-0. Christian Brothers College took the silver medal, while St. Rose Parish took bronze thanks to a 2-0 victory for the former in their head-to-head game.

Because the clubs were both U.S.-based, those two medals are listed as part of U.S. Soccer's Olympic history.

Four years later, the 1908 London Games featured the first-ever true international soccer competition contested between teams from various nations. The hosts won gold, while Denmark finished second and the Netherlands won bronze. The United States did not participate.

The first time the U.S. men competed in the modern, truly international version of the Olympic soccer tournament was in 1924, appearing in 13 different tournaments since. They have never medaled in that time, with the fourth place result in 2000 being their closest by far, reaching the quarterfinals on only one other occasion in 1956 in a tournament that featured just 16 teams, and, thus, the U.S. began the competition in the quarterfinal round.

Full USA men's soccer record, history at Olympic games

Since their two medals back in 1904, the United States men have not been terribly close to seeing the podium at an Olympic games save for one close call in 2000.

Below is the full history of the U.S. men at the Olympic games.

Of note, the Olympics was originally a full single-elimination competition using a standard knockout bracket in the early days of the competition. The format changed to its current two-stage competition with group and knockout rounds in 1960. The tournament then transitioned to a youth tournament in 1992 and has been in this state since.

* This tournament featured just three participating clubs, with two of them hailing from the United States