BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : U.S. Gives Level Best but Stalls : Soccer: Team ties Poland, but its hopes of reaching the second round are quashed when Italy beats Kuwait.

The U.S. Olympic team’s dream of pulling American soccer out of its deep and familiar rut died quietly Wednesday night. Its moral victory, a 2-2 tie with Poland, lost its meaning when Italy beat Kuwait in Barcelona to claim second place in Group A and advance to the next round.

No American team has advanced from the first round, and this team had high hopes of becoming the first. But even this eager group was unable to outrun the country’s legacy of mediocrity in international soccer.

The 1-1-1 U.S. record matched that of the 1984 Olympic team, and the six goals are the most a U.S. team has scored in Olympic competition. But the United States is 3-11-5 in 10 Olympic appearances, and nothing was seen to provide hope that the record will improve anytime soon.

“I think that, without a professional league, we have arrived at the point where we won’t keep on growing,” said Lothar Osiander, the U.S. coach.

“Our players are without a professional week-in, week-out grind. This is the level you can expect. This is as good as this team can play.”

The United States’ team did what it expected to do: It scored three points in three games, and in Wednesday’s critical game it scored two goals, thought to be necessary to add to the team’s goal differential in case Kuwait could tie Italy.

But it also gave up two goals, and Italy’s 1-0 victory ended the U.S. chance.

Poland won the group title with a 2-0-1 record and Italy advanced as the second-place team with a 2-1 mark.

The Italians did exactly what they needed to advance, no more, and that remains a sore point with Osiander.

The U.S. team had filed a protest on Tuesday, noting that the rules call for all the tournament’s games to be played at the same time, even if they are played in different cities. The protest was denied, though, and the United States played two hours before Italy played at Barcelona.

The time difference gave Italy two potential advantages: Its game would be played in cooler temperatures, after sunset, and its game began after the U.S. game was over, allowing the Italians to know exactly what they had to do to advance.

Osiander’s disappointment was etched on his face, along with the burden of dashed hopes. He could not have guessed that three points would have not sent the team to the second round.

“In most tournaments, three points will get you to the next round,” U.S. defender Alexi Lalas said. “Like most of the things with U.S. soccer, we have to do it the hard way, or the interesting way.”

Lalas’ presence in the game illustrated his point. He began the tournament with a broken foot and did not play in the first two games. But as the play of the U.S. defenders deteriorated, Lalas got ready. He and the team’s medical staff fashioned a removable cast. To accommodate it, he wore a size-larger shoe on his left foot.

Lalas played only the first half, but his size--he is 6 feet 3--presented an obstacle for the taller, more physical Polish forwards. Poland is one of the quickest teams in the tournament, and the Polish players penetrated the U.S. zone time and again.

Several times the Polish attackers found themselves alone in front of the U.S. goal but rushed their shots and missed excellent scoring chances. The game’s furious early pace delighted the sparse crowd of 3,500 at Romareda Stadium.

The Americans likewise had chances, and they converted first. Erik Imler scored his first international goal in the 20th minute. He dribbled around a defender, turned him and scored from inside the penalty area.

Marek Kozminski evened the score 10 minutes later, knocking a rebound past goalkeeper Brad Friedel.

Friedel later was caught far out of the box after a furious rush by two Polish attackers. Andrzej Juskowiak had enough time to take the ball farther out but still shot from an acute angle and scored.

Imler set up Steve Snow for the second U.S. goal, in the 52nd minute. Snow scored on a header off Imler’s centering pass.

In other games Wednesday, Egypt beat Colombia, 4-3, and Spain shut out Qatar, 2-0.