updated 6:45 a.m. ET Aug. 28, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - For the first time since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the team standing atop the podium for the gold medal ceremony won’t be wearing red with its white and blue.

Argentina and Italy will play for the gold after a stunning day that included the United States being humbled 89-81 by Argentina and the Italians using their 3-point prowess to knock off previously unbeaten Lithuania 100-91.

Allen Iverson promised a full effort in the bronze medal game Saturday night, but that will do little to erase the stigma that always will be associated with this Olympic team.

They’ve already lost three times, hammering home the reality that the world has not only caught up to the Americans, it has surpassed them.

“We still have to represent our country, go out there and fight as hard as if it were a gold medal game,” Iverson said, “and make the people proud of us back home.”

Since losing in the semifinals of the 1988 Olympics to the Soviet Union, the Americans had stood above the competition on the medal stands in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney. But after being thoroughly outplayed by an Argentine team that lacks superstars but knew how to play together better, bronze is the best the U.S. team can do.

Manu Ginobili scored 29 points for Argentina, which took control at the start of the second half, went ahead by 18 and waited to hold off a comeback that never came from a hastily assembled assortment of NBA stars that began practicing in late July — a month after their opponents.

Indeed, the Dream Team days are long gone. It’s the first time since pro players were added for the 1992 Olympics that the United States will not go home with gold.

“We fought as hard as we could,” Iverson said. “We couldn’t get it done for whatever reason. They were a better team than us.”

Argentina, with almost the same roster that made history in 2002 by becoming the first team to defeat a U.S. squad of NBA players, had a team of better passers, shooters and defenders. They confronted the Americans with a mixture of man-to-man and zone defenses, confounded them with an assortment of back picks and deft passes.

Slide show   Emotional Moments: Aug. 29 Trouble mars the marathon but the Olympic spirit prevails.

Argentina’s players celebrated wildly when the game ended, and the crowd yelled “Ole!”

U.S. coach Larry Brown walked over and gave a handshake and hug to his Argentine counterpart, Ruben Magnano, who played for Argentina in the Tournament of the Americas against the first Dream Team that won gold in Barcelona.

“Our rival today was extremely tough, but in the few hours that passed between yesterday’s game and today’s, we realized that nothing was impossible,” Magnano said. “We had to go out there and attack them on an equal footing, go for them. That’s what we did, and that’s why we won.”

The U.S. team’s best effort had come Thursday in a quarterfinal victory over previously undefeated Spain.

But just a day later, the Americans went back to missing 3-point shots, lost Tim Duncan to foul trouble, didn’t get a breakout performance from any player and couldn’t make a sustained comeback after they fell behind by a double-digit margin.

The Americans gave Argentina credit, but the fact remained that a big part of the U.S. team’s loss was its fundamental weaknesses: a lack of familiarity with each other, poor defense and abysmal outside shooting.

It showed that the quarterfinal victory over Spain was an aberration, not an awakening.

“I don’t know if we’d have beaten them if Timmy had played 40 minutes — though I’d have liked to have had that chance,” Brown said. “Basketball has been getting better around the world because of what the Dream Team did in ’92 and, rather than knocking our guys, we should give credit to the guys who won.”

The results might have been different if the Americans had fielded a team of their best players, but injuries, indifference and insecurities left many of the best Americans — including Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Jason Kidd — back in the United States.

“In 1992, the USA had the best players ever. Here they are great players, too, but they are young and they never played internationally, so with different rules it’s a whole different thing,” said Ginobili, who also plays for the San Antonio Spurs. “The rest of the world is getting better and the States isn’t bringing their best players.”

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