Historically, the Olympic men’s soccer tournament has served as an important link for top young American players to transition from the youth levels and into higher levels, including the full national team. At the Sydney Games in 2000, young players like John O’Brien, Landon Donovan and Josh Wolff went from prospects to important U.S. national team players at the 2002 World Cup. Then in Beijing 2008, it was Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber, Stuart Holden, Charlie Davies, Jozy Altidore and Maurice Edu who made a similar jump into the full team for the 2009 Confederations Cup and/or 2010 World Cup.
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