SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — The best U.S. Olympic men's soccer performance ever wasn't worth a medal.
The U.S. men lost 2-0 Friday night to Chile in the bronze medal game, ending an unexpected run that showed the Americans are starting to make ground, albeit slowly, on the world's soccer powers.
Ivan Zamorano, the Chilean 33-year-old striker known as "Ivan the Terrible," made a penalty kick in the 70th minute and scored again in the 84th. Zamorano is the tournament's leading scorer with six goals.
The penalty was a needless one. Defender Danny Califf tackled substitute Sebastian Gonzalez from behind as both chased a long ball to the left of the net. The ball was going out of bounds when Califf clipped Gonzalez' legs.
Zamorano easily made the spot kick, catching goalkeeper Brad Friedel moving the wrong way.
After that, the game degenerated into a series of fouls. U.S. coach Clive Charles brought Landon Donovan off the bench in the 82nd to provide a spark, but Zamorano netted from 6 yards on a feed from Cladio Maldonado two minutes later.
The U.S. team finished the tournament with a 1-2-3 record, with a penalty kick victory over Japan officially counting as a tie. A victory over Kuwait advanced the Americans beyond the first round of an Olympic tournament for the first time, a byproduct of fielding a team almost exclusively consisting of professionals.
For the most part, it was an evening of third-rate soccer for a third-place game.
The teams were playing for a medal, but it didn't feel like it until the second half. The Chileans blew a late lead to lose in the semifinals to Cameroon, and their disappointment showed early in a performance that lacked the usual South American spirit.
The U.S. team had done well to get this far, but was clearly out of its league in a semifinal loss to Spain and would have been thrilled with any color medal. The combination of a good team playing down and an emerging team playing with some motivation made the game even but uneventful until Zamarano's late heroics.
The best U.S. scoring chance came just before Zamarano's first goal. Brian Dunseth, the U.S. captain who had been sidelined the entire tournament after suffering a groin injury, put a half-volley off the crossbar after a deflected corner kick in the 66th minute.
Cameroon and Spain play Saturday for the gold medal.