The United States’ Sacha Kljestan goes to the ground at the end of a match against Nigeria during a 2008 Beijing Olympic Games group match at the Worker’s Stadium in Beijing on Aug. 13, 2008. (Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)MARSEILLE, France — The U.S. was two minutes away from an early exit in the men’s soccer tournament at the Beijing Olympics when Sacha Kljestan scored on a penalty kick. But it did make Kljestan the answer to an unwelcome trivia question: Who was the last American male soccer player to score a goal in the Olympic Games? Yet in all that time, no one has scored for the U.S. in the men’s Olympic soccer tournament because the American men haven’t played in the Summer Games since 2008. Other players Olympic coach Marko Mitrovic wanted weren’t released by their club teams to play in France.

Source: Los Angeles Times July 24, 2024 16:27 UTC