U.S. men's 2000 Olympic medal-round run: An improbable adventure, told by those who lived it - ESPN

When the United States U23 men's national team kicked off in the Olympic qualifying tournament, it did so understanding that the only meaningful way to measure success would be simple: qualify. Anything short of securing a trip to the delayed Tokyo Games will be viewed as a failure, especially in the wake of the senior team's collapse in 2018 World Cup qualifying and with the emergence of young Americans such as Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Sergino Dest playing at high levels in Europe.

With most of those high-profile, age-eligible stars unavailable for the under-23 event — clubs are not required to release players for qualifying, nor for the Olympics — coach Jason Kreis is relying on a group of mostly domestic-based players. After beating the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica, the U.S. will advance to the semifinals regardless of the outcome of its group-stage finale against Mexico. Those semifinals, where the Americans will meet one of Honduras, Canada, El Salvador or Haiti, will determine which countries will advance to the final and subsequently the Olympics in Japan.

The thin margin for error and roster rules are contributing factors in why the U.S. men have missed out on three of the past four Olympics, but it doesn't change the fact that U.S. Soccer missed out on three key events in the past two decades and the wide-ranging benefits that would have come along with them. Before that disappointing period, however, the U.S. qualified for five straight Olympics, a stretch that was capped by a magical run in 2000 that saw the Americans make an unlikely trip to the medal rounds — by far Team USA's best-ever performance in an Olympic tournament.

The 2000 team featured several players who went on to