If fans of the U.S. men’s national soccer team felt an unfamiliar and unpleasant sensation in the solar plexus tonight, 30 seconds from watching their team advance to the final 16 of the World Cup … well, it was both.

Unpleasant? That goes without saying. A 2-1 victory over Portugal takes the Yanks to the second round. The 2-2 draw does not. The former turning into the latter is unpleasant.

“Unfamiliar?” That, too.

Because this kind of last-minute World Cup awfulness has never before happened to a U.S. men’s team.

Fans … and players, too … are feeling something they never before felt.

How do we know that was an unprecedented event? Because we have gone over the scores and we can assure you that nothing like it has happened to an American team since the dawn of the modern soccer era, in 1990.

Let’s review:

—Italy 1990. The U.S. is one of the all-time “happy to be here” teams, in the World Cup for the first time since 1950. The college boys needed that freakish Paul Caligiuri goal in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to get to Italy at all.

Open with Czechoslovakia, trail 2-0 in the first half, 3-0 after 50 minutes, and Eric Wynalda gets the red card in the 52nd and a 5-1 final seems about right. Then a 1-0 loss to Italy in Rome, where Italy scored in the 11th minute, the Yanks had one good scoring opportunity, a shot by Peter Vermes (or it may have been Bruce Murray) that Italy’s goalkeeper, Walter Zenga, stops by sitting on it but, c’mon, no way the U.S. of 1990 beats Italy. In Rome. And then a 2-1 loss to Austria, with the “1” coming in the 85th minute.

Let’s invent a Heartbreak ranking systemm from 1 to 10 — 1 being “barely noticed” to 10 being “will never forget the pain”.

1990 Heartbreak rating: 1. Did we mention “happy to be there”?

—USA 1994. A not-very-good U.S. team gets to the final 16. In the opener, the Yanks trail Switzerland 1-0 just before half when Wynalda puts in a marvelous free kick from distance. It ends 1-1, the Yanks never having led. It feels like a victory! Second game, in the Rose Bowl, the U.S. takes a 2-0 lead over Colombia, the second being the infamous own goal by Andres Escobar, and the final is 2-1. Took a lead, never lost it.

Final group-stage match is Romania, and an 18th minute goal by Dan Petrescu is the only scoring. Frustrating, but not painful for U.S. fans. Not really, not when the team had 70 minutes to get even, and failed, on a brutally hot Pasadena day, and the U.S. still advanced. And then the round of 16 versus Brazil. No loss to Brazil is painful to a second-tier team, and this one was not, because even though it finished 1-0 at no point did any sensible person think the U.S. was going to beat Brazil, even a 10-man Brazil — who got the winner, from Bebeto, in the 72nd minute.

1994 Heartbreak rating: 3. Really a 1 or a 2, but taking into account unsensible fans.

—France 1998. A train wreck in France. Game 1 in Paris, Andreas Moeller scores in the eighth minute, Jurgen Klinsmann gets a second in the 64th, and that’s Germany over there, so who is surprised? Game 2, Iran, a geopolitical event as much as a match, and Iran takes a 2-0 lead. Brian McBride scores in the 87th minute to make it 2-1. Embarrassing, maybe infuriating, but not painful because the U.S. never led and never showed any likelihood of doing so. Third match, which means nothing, goes 1-0 to Yugoslavia.

1998 Heartbreak rating: 2. This went off the tracks from the moment Steve Sampson invented/reinvented the 3-6-1.

—Japan/Korea 2002. Opening victory over Portugal, 3-2. U.S. was up 3-0, and coughing up the whole of the lead might have been painful, but didn’t happen. Then comes the first time the U.S. has a World Cup lead it doesn’t hold — against co-hosts South Korea. Clint Mathis scores in the 24th minute and the Yanks nurse it till the 78th minute, when Ahn Jung-hwan ties it for the Koreans. No problem; that was the Koreans, at home, and the Yanks got a point. Well done. Then Poland, and the Poles score twice in the first five minutes, and this is SO not a game the U.S. is going to get a point out of. It finishes 3-1 with the U.S. goal coming in the 83rd minute, but hardly anyone remembers this game at all (including me, and I was there) because the U.S. still advanced.

Round of 16, U.S. beats Mexico 2-0. Sweet. Quarterfinals, U.S. loses to Germany 1-0. Michael Ballack scores in the 39th minute, and the U.S. has some chances but, hey, that’s Germany over there and it ends 1-0 — but is still the best World Cup run by a U.S. team. That’s good news! Landon and some teammates do the Tonight Show.

2006 Heartbreak rating: 4. Because the U.S. almost got even versus the Germans, once or twice.

—Germany 2006. Jan Koller scores in the fifth minute for the Czechs, and Tomas Rosicki gets two, one before half, one after. At no point did the U.S. look prepared to do any damage. Final, 3-0. Second match, a courageous 1-1 draw with Italy, but Italy led in the 22nd minute, and the U.S. goal was an Italy own-goal and, again, this just wasn’t going to happen, especially after Pablo Mastroeni’s red card in the 45th minute and, hey, one point is more than they really deserved. Then the Ghana match, which the U.S. never led, losing 2-1. And out.

2006 heartbreak rating: 4. This team had a slight chance, ahead of the third match, but it was never going to go far.

—South Africa 2010. Steven Gerard scores in the fourth minute, and this looks like it will be a blowout, with England winning easily, but Clint Dempsey gets that sloppy goal (pretty much pushed over the line by the England keeper) and it finished 1-1. It was like a reprieve for the Yanks. A gift point! Second match, Slovenia (!) takes a 2-0 halftime lead, and the U.S. then stages a remarkable comeback, Landon Donovan scoring in the 48th minute and Michael Bradley in the 82nd .

(And you know what? That 2-2 final is still the most recent World Cup match in which a team trailed by two goals and got a result. So how is that sad? It isn’t.)

And then the Algeria game, where Donovan runs the length of the field and scores one minute into added time. A 1-0 victory? U.S. soccer fans are going nuts! You can still google “YouTube Americans celebrate Algeria” and see the wild scenes all over the country.

Round of 16, Ghana, who is just better than the Yanks are, bigger and faster, especially. It’s 1-0 Ghana. Landon ties with a penalty in the 62nd minute. It goes to extra time. Asamoah Gyan scores three minutes into the extra 30, and that’s that. U.S. fans have a whole half hour to come to grips with this, another World Cup loss in which the U.S. never led.

2010 heartbreak rating: 4. Ghana deserved it and the only U.S. goal was a penalty.

—Brazil 2014. And here we are. First match, U.S. up 1-0 over Ghana, but Ghana is dominating play. Ghana gets even in the 82nd minute, which would have been a bummer, but U.S. fans never suffer bummers like that, remember?, and John Brooks (who?) scores the header in the 86th and the U.S. wins 2-1. Party time!

Then comes Game 2, tonight, and the U.S. has overcome a 1-0 deficit (Nani, fifth minute) against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and leads 2-1 on goals by Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey, and the Yanks are going to the knockout round! Ronaldo looks like he has already given up as my colleague at The National, Gary Meenaghan, wrote from Manaus.

Only 30 seconds left now, and nothing bad ever happens to the U.S. in the final seconds of a World Cup! You could look it up! Never!

And then Michael Bradley loses the ball near midfield, it falls to that Ronaldo cat, who summons the interest and energy to put an inch-perfect cross onto the head of a substitute named Silvestre Varela, who bangs it home past Tim Howard, who seems to be in despair even before the ball stops moving and …

What just happened?

The U.S. just blew a lead with 30 seconds left in the five minutes of added time. On a goal that seemed to come from nowhere. “Shocking”, is the word. “Sickening”, even.

And now the Yanks need a result against Germany or some help from somebody in the Ghana-Portugal game … and wasn’t this over? The U.S. was going to win that game 2-1, lead the group, start thinking about that round-of-16 opponent, and …

Welcome to the World Cup, American soccer fans.

Stuff like this happens. And it’s crushing. Like a punch to the gut. It knocks the air out of you.

2014 heartbreak rating: 8. A record high! It would be a 9 or a 10 except that the U.S. still has a chance; the goal didn’t knock it out of the tournament. And it was a group game. Not the quarterfinals, and losing in a shootout, which any Engand fan can tell you about at great length.

Two interesting concepts, going ahead.

1. Does the U.S. team show up flat and dead against Germany, lose decisively and slink home, still thinking about “U.S. 2, Portugal 1”? Could happen. We have no precedent for it, remember?

2. Do U.S. fans learn never to assume anything in a one-goal game against a quality opponent? Do they try to develop a thick hide so they can’t be shocked like this ever again? Having been emotional newbies, to this point … who were just dumped by their soccer boyfriend/girlfriend?

My answers:

1. Very good chance of it, because that kind of opportunity, snatched away, often never appears again. Anyone who follows sports knows this. (My hunch? Germany beats the Yanks, Ghana beats the Portuguese and finishes second in the group via goal difference, and the U.S. goes home on Friday.)

And 2. I hope so, because this will happen again, eventually. For 24 years, U.S. fans never had to deal with anything like this. Unlike nearly every other soccer country in the world.

Can you deal with it?

Maybe we find out, on Thursday.