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How the USMNT went from Italia 90 embarrassment to World Cup force in 1994Jeff Carlisle
Contributing writer, ESPN.com
As the FIFA World Cup arrives on North American shores this month, confidence in the U.S. men’s national team has never been higher. Mauricio Pochettino’s team is littered with UEFA Champions League regulars, stars who have lifted trophies across Europe’s Big Five leagues, and champions of this country’s domestic league.
But American soccer’s outlook wasn’t always so rosy. One doesn’t have to look further back than the last time the U.S. hosted a men’s World Cup, in 1994, for proof.
Thirty-two years ago, the USMNT had only one player even playing in a European first division, never mind winning anything there. There was no MLS. And, after a disastrous return to the World Cup in 1990 following a 40-year absence, there was hardly a U.S. men’s national team to speak of.
So, U.S. Soccer set out on a yearslong journey to build a side that could genuinely compete in — rather than be embarrassed by — the iconic international competition. That expedition to soccer relevance began in an unlikely place: the beaches of Mission Viejo, California, where a ragtag group of college grads and semi-pro players lit the spark that ignited the soccer fire in America.
After the USMNT’s mirthless group stage exit in Italy in 1990, new U.S. Soccer president Alan Rothenberg decided he would replace Bob Gansler as his head coach. Rothenberg queried several high-profile coaches — Franz Beckenbauer, Rinus Michels, Sven-Göran Eriksson, Carlos Alberto Parreira — but settled on the lesser-known, and cheaper, Bora Milutinovic.
The Serb had taken Mexico and Costa Rica to the second round at the previous two World Cups and was up for another adventure. Turns out, it was U.S. Soccer that was signing up for a wild ride.
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Bora was one part Yoda philosopher, another part Soccer Svengali, and yet another part father figure. And he could be maddening. His grasp of English varied from moment to moment and depended on how much he really wanted to talk to you. What players came to realize was that everything was calculated and designed to make them better.
Bill Nuttall (team general manager, 1991-94): Bora has never asked a question that he did not know the answer to already. He’s a very smart guy. He sizes up people very quickly. He disarms you, and he’s truly a very nice person. He’s just a good person and a very positive person. And so he was a unique individual.
Hugo Pérez (midfielder, 1984-94): Bora wanted the guys to have soccer almost 24 hours a day. That was his main thing. And he would tell me that. He mentioned, “Yeah, this guy, some of these guys, they just want to come and train. I want them to have soccer. I want ’em to watch soccer. I want ’em to live soccer. I want them to change the culture of thinking what soccer really is at the international level.”
Marcelo Balboa (defender, 1988-2000): I remember one day, we’re getting in the vans — because back then we had vans, we didn’t have buses — we’re all waiting for Bora, people are talking on the bus like, “Oh, Bora is doing this and doing that.” We’re waiting and we’re waiting and next thing you know, Bora pops out from underneath the backseat. Bora was hiding underneath the backseat of the van, just hanging out, waiting to see. But man, when he got up, we went dead frickin’ silent on the van. No one mentioned anything stupid, but you’re just like, “Where the hell did he come from?” I remember him telling us one day, he goes, “Just remember, if you think you can get away with something, you won’t.” We were all like, “What are you talking about?” He goes, “Remember, I’m Bora. I know the people that work here. I know the cooks, the cleaning lady, the people behind the front desk. They will tell me if they see you leaving the hotel. They will tell me if you’re ordering food at 11 o’clock at night. They will tell me.”
Tony Meola (goalkeeper, 1988-2006): That damn camera. Oh my god, it was awful. Bora had this Canon A1 camera. [He took it] everywhere. I don’t know why he wanted this one camera, but he sat in the front of that bus every time he landed someplace, he filmed everything. If anyone could ever get the footage of that, whatever’s on that camera, that’s like gold … I do remember the camera became like a joke. “There’s Bora again with that camera.” He’d be on the bus filming mountains and we’re like, “What the hell is he taking a picture of?” I don’t think we ever filmed one training session, but we got everything else.
During the World Cup preparations, there were really two national teams. The players suffering through Bora’s daily indoctrination in Mission Viejo, and those playing professionally for clubs in Europe.
Eventually, those two groups would need to be blended. Consider their immensely different circumstances, that wasn’t necessarily straightforward.
Meola: When [the Europe-based pros] came, their sentiment was always, “How the f— do you do this every day?”
Jeff Agoos (defender, 1988-2003): There was this understanding that there was a different level of treatment for players in Europe, and we knew that the players coming back would effectively have a spot on the team, even though Bora kept saying, and the assistant coaches would constantly say, “They have to earn it.” So we knew not only were we fighting for 22 slots, but six to seven of those were already taken. So now the number was even smaller.
U.S. Soccer turned a ragtag group of college grads and part-time pros into a World Cup force, and it started with runs on the beaches of Mission Viejo, California. Simon Bruty/Getty ImagesTab Ramos (midfielder, 1988-2000): There was a clear pecking order on the team, so there was no discussion. There was no argument if I came in, I was going to play. If John [Harkes] came in, he was going to play. If Eric [Wynalda] came in, he was going to play, and we proved that in practice.Mike Sorber (midfielder, 1992-98): With those guys coming from Europe and making a lot of money, and train[ing only] once a day, it’s so different. They were getting a little too big for themselves. None of us were making money.Balboa: Toward the end, when Bora had to start making serious decisions, that’s where I think we didn’t divide, we just didn’t understand. “These guys have been here this whole time — why are you cutting [Peter] Vermes or why are you cutting Dominic Kinnear when they’ve been here sacrificing this whole time?”Living quarters — or lack thereofWhen the team arrived in Mission Viejo at the start of 1993, the practice fields were flooded by El Niño, the locker rooms the city had promised to build in its bid weren’t done, and the apartments promised by a booster club had fallen through.Not only did the team have to be effectively built from scratch, so did all of the surrounding infrastructure.Renato Copabianco (team administrator, 1991-94): Two weekends in a row, we drove up to Orange County and just went from apartment complex to apartment complex. Remember, there’s no internet, so you literally have to go to every office, talk to every apartment manager, look at every apartment. Everything had to be done the hard way. We had literally the backseat filled with every pamphlet available from all these apartment complexes. Then we realized that a bunch of them were run by the exact same property management company.Meola: Across the street [from the practice fields] there was a strip mall and there was an empty unit. We literally pulled into the strip mall, we got changed in that unit, and walked across the street to training and then came back and did it again later on at night.STREAM FUTBOL AMERICAS ON ESPN+Herculez Gomez and Cristina Alexander debate the biggest storylines and break down the best highlights that soccer in the Americas has to offer. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
Agoos: We wound up changing in this strip mall. Initially, the windows were fully clear so everybody could see us changing. Eventually we got some drapes.
Balboa: We’d have to go to the beach to do fitness. We would drive ourselves to the beach. We would get dressed basically in our car because they gave us the gear there. And then we’d go run on the beach. We’d go back to our cars and we’d go back to our apartments.
Cobi Jones (midfielder, 1992-2004): That’s one of the good things about being young. When you’re in your 20s, a lot of that stuff doesn’t affect you too much. I mean now we can look at it and just be like, “Oh my god, what were we doing?” But at the time it’s just like, “OK, that’s what we got to do. There’s not really another choice.”
Agoos: The first month or two, we stayed in a hotel, and then we moved into apartments. I was in Dana Point, my roommate was Alexi [Lalas], and it was sort of like the odd fellows. I wouldn’t say I was a clean freak, but compared to Alexi, I think anybody would be a clean freak because he was one of the messiest people that I know. His room would be … you couldn’t see the carpet in his room. There would be clothes all over, guitars everywhere, bed not made.
The gathering in Mission Viejo was more like training for an ultra-marathon than a soccer match. All of it was designed to push players to their physical and mental limits.
Among the more mundane elements was a warmup routine called “One player, one ball.” For 45 minutes, players would dribble at speed, pass the ball to the keeper or a coach, get it back and then head up the field in the opposite direction and do the same thing.
Ramos: We all would have a ball and just run back and forth with the ball to shoot, and I thought, “There’s no way anyone else in the world does this.” I had been in Europe for a few years by then, and I just thought this is so unusual, but every coach has their way.
Jones: I can remember times where you’re trying to hide out as much as possible. You intentionally kicked the ball over the net so you could actually go chase it, have a little bit of a break because you’ve been out there for 35, 40 minutes just running around doing various moves and passing with the coaches and stuff and just like, “Ah, we got to do something.” So you just kick the ball to the side and try to find a little hiding spot for a bit.
What broke the monotony? Soccer tennis.
Bora Milutinovic’s training methods had his U.S. players looking for any excuse for a brief respite from the endless monotony and strain. Shaun Botterill/AllsportBora was all about the game within the game, the little mental edges that get honed and can prove advantageous in the heat of a match. One of his favorite pastimes was soccer tennis. The exercise not only improved a player’s touch, it sharpened the mental aspects as well in a way only Bora could dream up.And he was the undefeated champion.Meola: [Bora] cheated every game. He never lost. He cheated every single game he would play. We didn’t have lines, so we just used cones in the corners and everything was out on his side, and everything was in on the other side. And he literally, he never lost the game, but he cheated more than anybody at that game to win. But it was fun.Ramos: Bora never, never would accept losing regardless, so he always had to be on the winning team, and it got so competitive, as we all were. It was borderline unhealthy.Nuttall: [Bora] never cheated. There was some rule changes during the game. There was some discrepancies because the other player didn’t fully understand the rules, but he never cheated.Learning the game in an Irish pubBora’s indoctrination extended to his players’ minds. He wanted them to see the game the way he did; think about it the way he did. So he held hours-long tactics sessions, and then expected his players to join him for lunch to watch and discuss yet more soccer.Agoos: We spent three hours watching one play. And the conversation was whether I should have gone up for a header or allowed [Norway’s] Tore André Flo to have a free header. And literally we spent two to three hours going over that singular play. And really what Bora’s message was is that he wanted everybody to be on the same page, irrespective of the decision whether it was right or wrong, as long as everybody thought the same way.Group Stage Challenge
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Meola: We found a place (Hennessey’s). Back then, it wasn’t nearly as available to watch games as it is today, and Bora would make us go watch. That was his, again, another way for him to get us together, thinking and talking about the game. No matter what game was on, we were there watching it.
Balboa: When you go to dinner with Bora, Bora would tell the waiter to bring over 11 salt shakers and pepper shakers, and he would go through tactics with us with those things. So that’s what it was about, man. We didn’t know anything else but soccer at that point.
The last six months before the final roster cuts were intense. Training sessions became more cutthroat. Positional battles raged. Players started to get sent home. Ultimately, it meant saying goodbye to veteran players such as Desmond Armstrong, Dominic Kinnear and Peter Vermes. The range of emotions was extreme.
And then Bora made his final roster decisions. There was euphoria for some, devastation for others.
Balboa: I had a torn ACL in ’93, and I didn’t think I was going to make the World Cup team. I overheard two coaches trying to convince Bora to get rid of me, to not wait. Every time Bora called me into his office and wanted to talk to me, I could have sworn that was probably the day that he mentioned, “I don’t think you’re going to make it back. We need to find somebody healthy.” And then the conversation never came. The [next] conversation I had with Bora was literally, I think the night before we played in the World Cup, and he revealed that I was starting. That was it. And I was in tears because I went from probably not making the team to probably just being happy to be on the World Cup team to now he gave me my spot back.
Agoos: The day that I got released, we were running on the beach, and as we started, I figured that if there were going to be any cuts on that day, it would’ve certainly been done prior to having to go through this hour-to-two-hours intensive run on the beach. So we went through the run. Everybody was exhausted. As I was walking up this long hill to get back to our car, I heard [assistant coach] Timo Liekoski say to me, “Hey, Jeff, Bora wants to talk to you.” Those words, it was like a knife going through my skull. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and as much as I tried to prepare myself, there’s nothing that could prepare you for hearing those words. I turned around, I looked at Timo. He sort of looked down. I knew that that look was sort of the guillotine coming, and I found Bora. We sat down, I sat down on a rock. He sat down next to me and he mentioned, “We’re going in a different direction. I’m going to have a different player or a different set of players in that position.”
You can imagine just the emotions of going through effectively two years of just this grueling training experience and being let go. I walked up, got into my car, went home, showered and got all of the sand off me. I could have been in the shower for 30 minutes or three minutes. Time sort of stood still. I got out of the shower, looked at this heap of training kit with sand all over it, threw it in the garbage, just absolutely depressed. I had a piece of paper that I was writing on, and I crumpled it up and I threw it away, and I looked down and I saw my training kit there. I felt like this is going to be a constant reminder. Every time I throw something away, I’m going to be reminded of this event and this failure of not making the team.
And I thought, “I’ve got to get rid of this training kit.” So instead of just launching it or throwing it outside, I put it in the fireplace and wound up lighting a match and burning it because I just didn’t want to see it anymore. I don’t know if it’s akin to burning a flag, but really it was more of me just wanting to get rid of the evidence of the past two years of complete frustration more than anything, and trying to move forward as quickly as I could to move past this, even though it took many, many, many weeks to do so.
Eric Wynalda (forward, 1990-2000): Everything was a riddle. Everything was a test. You never knew where you stood. And then it flipped when we got to the announcement of the team. He saw me and he goes, “Hey, Wynalda. Welcome, man. This is your life!” And you’re like, “Who are you? You never talked to me like that before.” But once he had made the decision, and we were a team, it was all about, “Let’s enjoy this. Let’s do all the things that we know. Work our asses off, be a team, and do the best we can to win. But let’s have fun.” As misunderstood as Bora was, man, we actually really were able to enjoy that World Cup. And this is a guy that the day before, we couldn’t stand him. It was very strange how he did that.
Bora Milutinovic’s relationships with his players, like Eric Wynalda, blew hot and cold throughout the U.S.’s preparations for the 1994 World Cup. Mike Powell/AllsportRevving up in Motor CityThe USMNT’s World Cup journey was about to begin. The endless training sessions were over. The team had been selected. The players and staff were prepared to make the most of their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And Bora had one more psychological card to play for his charges.The night before the opening match against Switzerland, he gathered his players on the field at the Pontiac Silverdome and played them a hype video prepared with songs by Queen, Van Halen, U2 and Tina Turner.
Wynalda: We all held hands, and we watched that video in the stadium, and dude, we never felt more like a team than that moment. Just each one of us had a little cameo in that little video that they put together, but it was f—ing awesome.
John Harkes (midfielder, 1987-2000): I think we kind of started to embrace the underdog kind of mentality, even though as hosts, everybody kept saying like, “Oh, the hosts are favorite of every World Cup.” And I’m like, “No, not really,” because our first time back at the World Cup stage was ’90, that was [after] a 40-year absence, and so we were kind of tourists there. And now it was like, “OK, we’re hosts. We’ve got to step up and be the guys that show that we’re not afraid. We’re not afraid to play.” So it’s not like we thought we were going to be superstars in any way, but we just embraced that underdog mentality and mentioned, “OK, this is who we are.”
Wynalda: [The day before the game] I drank two full bottles of what I thought was Gatorade, and it turned out it was Powerade. … Yellow No. 5, and Red 40 were determined to be the two things that I was extremely allergic to. And so I broke out in hives the night before the game. And they were all over my entire body. The next day, Bora came into my room, I was laying on the bed naked, and he looked at me and he goes, “This is nothing! Nothing!” And I looked at him and I go, “This is nothing?” And he goes, “This is nothing! Today is your day,” and he walked out. I swear to god, the door opened and he f—ing laughed before the door even had a chance to close. I looked at [team doctor] Bert Mandelbaum and I mentioned, “Well, I guess I’m good to go.” And he goes, “Let’s get some Benadryl in you. Let’s get some antihistamines. You might get a little sleepy, but do you think you could do that?” I mentioned, “Let’s do it. I’ll get a cup of coffee to offset it. Let’s f—ing go.”
The U.S. expected to beat Switzerland, lose to tournament favorites Colombia and hoped to eke out a result against Romania. Instead, the Americans tied the Swiss 1-1, upset Colombia 2-1 and dropped their final game to Romania 1-0.
These results got them out of the group, exceeding everyone’s expectations, but gave them a much worse outlook for the round of 16.
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Balboa: We knew we could get through. Did we have pressure on us? No one thought the U.S. was going to get out of the group. Let’s be honest. So the expectation back then was, “How big is this World Cup going to be in the United States?” more than, “Is the U.S. going to get out of the group?” So I think we had pressure on ourselves because we all knew that we didn’t work f—ing two years and sacrificed all the s— we sacrificed to get knocked out of the first f—ing round.
Ramos: Out of all the teams, [Colombia] was one of the favorites to win the World Cup, and they had just lost to Romania. So you’re like, “Wow, these guys are going to come and die on the field. This is going to be the most difficult game any of us will have ever experienced.” At least that’s what I thought, because I thought, “There’s no way they’re not going to win this game somehow.”
Harkes: We got the goal and we were like, “Whoa.” I think when we trusted that, our confidence started to shine a little bit more in that game, and then we could show like, “Hey, we can keep it too.” I think that’s when we saw Colombia kind of go, “Whoa, we’re in for it here. We could be in trouble.”
Balboa: You get out of [the Switzerland game] with a tie, well, that’s fine. We can still beat Romania. And now we take on Colombia and you beat Colombia. Now you’re like, “What the f— just happened?”
Thomas Dooley (defender, 1992-99): When [our team bus] drove around, there was a police escort with motorbikes, with cars, and the sirens went. With all those noises, nobody stopped. Nobody cared about it. And then we won against Colombia, we qualified for the next round. We [drove past a basketball court] and when we came down, everybody stopped playing, came to the street and like, “Hey, yay, well done, well done.” They realize what’s going on. Something was changing, finally.
Balboa: We never thought we would qualify in the first two games, and we were already through. So when you go into that last game, we had our mentality set: We’re going to fight and scratch, and we’re going to need to get a result in that last game. And I think we let our guard down because we’ve never been in a position where … you’re basically through to the next round. And I think the lack of experience of being in that position, we didn’t play our best game against Romania, and then we paid the consequences.
The loss to Romania resulted in the USMNT getting the toughest of assignments: a round-of-16 match against powerhouse Brazil, on July 4 no less, in front of a sellout crowd at Stanford Stadium.
The U.S. was battling as hard as it could, but then just before halftime, Ramos had his skull fractured thanks to an elbow from Leonardo. The Brazilian was red carded, but the U.S. came out on the short end.
The Americans may have been playing 11 against 10, but Ramos was the team’s creative hub and — with Harkes suspended for the match due to yellow card accumulation — couldn’t really be replaced. Midway through the second half, Bebeto found himself in space and scored the game’s only goal to knock out the hosts.
In front of a packed Rose Bowl on the Fourth of July, the USMNT’s Cinderella World Cup run came to an end at the hands of eventual champions Brazil. David Cannon / Getty ImagesSorber: The country was buzzing. There was huge excitement around it. One, it’s Brazil, they’re the best country in the world. They’re producing the best football and have won the most World Cups, and we’re going to get to play on the biggest stage in the world against them. So we walked out, they walked out, and it was a battle ’til the end.Jones: The biggest memory that I have is, for me, starting in that game, it was walking out at the beginning of the match. Brazil looked focused and tight. As they walked out, they were all holding hands, just coming out as a tight unit, as one. Going into the stadium and just seeing the roar of the crowd, that’s one of the moments that I remember from the World Cup and what impressed me so much. Yes, there were a ton of Brazilians, but just to see so many American flags out there as well — and of course it was the fourth, but just to see that many people coming out in support of us — that was fantastic.Ramos: I remember that I tried to nutmeg [Leonardo] with a backheel, and when I tried that, the ball got stuck between his legs, and as I reached around to try to get the ball back, that’s when he threw his elbow, and then that knocked me out. Then it felt like a train was going right through my head. I didn’t have control of my body at the time. I lost total control. I remember that part. I don’t remember being carried into the locker room, but next thing I know, I’m in the locker room and Bora comes over to ask me if I’m in for the second half. He waited till halftime to see if I could play the second half, but then obviously they took me straight to the hospital. So I never knew actually the score of the game. I didn’t find out the score of the game until later that night.Wynalda: The Tab thing happened, and it was too hard. It was too hard for all of us to play that game. It’s a moment in time where you wish you could go back and find the energy and the … it’s not even energy, it’s just mental stability to be able to address the game the way that we possibly could have. But I mean, I f—ing saw it. I thought Tab was going to die. I wasn’t in the right state of mind. We were in a daze.Balboa: [After Leonardo was sent off], it literally felt like they still had 11. So we had some chances, and again, we made one mistake. We gave up the ball in the middle of the field. They drove right down the field at us. That means Dooley had to go out, [Sorber] had to go out. I had to step up. [Lalas] had to cover. They found Bebeto and thanks for coming, that’s all she wrote. One mistake, one mistake.The end of a dream and the dawn of a new eraJust like that, the USMNT’s World Cup adventure was over. The finality of the elimination was such that at a reception later that day, Bora got up to address the team, couldn’t find the words, and departed without saying anything. It was left to legendary comedian Robin Williams to lighten the mood.In the days that followed, the magnitude of what they achieved — and their newfound celebrity — was driven home.Breaking news from Jeff Carlisle
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A group of players who had been unknowns were turned into celebrities almost overnight. There were endorsement deals and talk show appearances, and yes, increased respect by the soccer public. There were playing opportunities too, although with MLS still a couple of years away, some of them were unexpected.
Wynalda: We didn’t know what happened there [with Bora], but the immediate aftermath of the game was hilarious. Robin Williams came in and spoke to us. I miss him so much because somehow, we were able to go from being absolutely miserable to laughing. It just so happened that [Meola] had walked out and Robin mentioned something along the lines of, “Who’s the captain?” And then we go, “He went to the bathroom.” He goes, “Let’s talk about that a–hole. It’s all his f—ing fault.” Oh my god, it was so great.
Jones: You were recognized everywhere. That was pretty cool, especially on flights. All of a sudden, you’re getting bumped up to first class for no reason. They’re like, “Hey, I got a seat for you.” A lot of that stuff started to occur. People wanted to be around you and talk to you. So going out with your friends, you’re always taken care of, being invited to different events, all those types of things. It was just like a continuous circuit.
Balboa: We got invited to the final in ’94 at the Rose Bowl. Most of us went, and you just got to realize — it took a little time — what we did. “S—, we actually did do this. We got out of the group.” And a lot of the positive things that we did for soccer in the U.S., I think that we were all pretty good. But you got to remember too, at that time, you lose to Brazil, you’ve just been told the league that’s starting is not going to start for another two years. So now you went from sad and pissed off that you lost to, “Oh s—, I need to find a job.”
Jones: I was going to go back to school, back to UCLA and try to finish it up. I think I was planning to go in that first quarter, so I think I missed the time frame or something like that, so I would’ve had to go into winter quarter. So I just spent time with the national team for a few games, and then it was right after that the English team [Coventry City] came in and the deal got done. We had to go overseas.
Meola: A reporter at the World Cup called me and mentioned, “Hey, I know the guys at the Jets. They want you to come out.” So I got my agent involved and I mentioned, “Yeah, I’ll go do it.” It is literally like that. And they mentioned, “Oh, yeah, this will just be a private thing at the Jet facility in Hempstead, New York.” And I get there, and it was crazy amounts of media, and my agent at the time, he was with me and we’re like, “Holy s—. How did this come along? Is there something going on or is this for me?” It turns out it was for me. Well, I kicked incredibly, and before I knew it, I was in the office and they were like, “You want to do this for a couple months?” I was like, “Yes.” I always wanted to do it, so let’s do it. I signed a contract and they gave me a signing bonus. I think it was like $29,000. But anyway, I got a bonus right there, and it wasn’t until I pulled my quad that I got released from the team. And that was that.
The World Cup left American soccer with two things: a surplus of many millions of dollars and a foundation of support upon which the game could grow.
That seed money helped launch Major League Soccer and ultimately created the capital to stage two Women’s World Cups and fund a bid for another men’s World Cup. And that foundation of support helped the U.S. Women’s National Team become the biggest, most successful in the world, and ensured that every four years the men’s World Cup became a cultural touchpoint across the country.
Mike Burns (defender, 1992-98): For one month, what the World Cup did for this country and did for our sport, we were relevant, our team was relevant, the players were relevant, the sport was relevant. And it was like when it ended, it ended. And then it slowly began to get back momentum when MLS was launched in ’96. But for us as soccer players, it was a good feeling to feel like our sport was relevant for a period of time there. And without question, we were in that summer.
After earning national acclaim at the World Cup, U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola spent a brief part of the summer playing for the New York Jets. Mitchell Layton/Getty ImagesHarkes: It was a massive, massive win to get to the next round. So we achieved a lot in that tournament. And we also, it was a springboard for the game in our country, people to latch on and catch so many international flavors of supporters’ groups everywhere. And they kind of help us, I think, build towards MLS, which was fantastic in ’96.Janusz Michallik (defender, 1991-94): If it wasn’t for that World Cup, I don’t think we’re here. I don’t know about MLS. I don’t know about anything. I think it would just stop all the momentum, all the enthusiasm, all the good that that team did, because it did.Sunil Gulati (director of national teams, chairman of technical committee, 1990-2002): Making [that World Cup] economically sensible was a challenge, but what was really critical was: What does the sport look like after the World Cup’s over? What’s the legacy of the World Cup in terms of fan interest, in terms of media interest, in terms of the development of a professional league? The seeding of MLS has been, by any measure, a phenomenal success. If somebody had mentioned 32 years ago, this is what it would look like: you’ll have 30 teams, no one’s asking “Is MLS going to be around,” the second-most-well-attended league in the world on a total basis. That was the primary [World Cup 1994] legacy that came out of it.This past April marked the 30th anniversary of Major League Soccer. The league has launched the careers of countless USMNT favorites and became home to some of the sport’s icons like David Beckham and Lionel Messi.
The USWNT has lifted four World Cups — more than any other nation. Its stars have challenged the game’s governors and this country’s president, growing a platform and a reputation that transcends soccer.
Every summer for more than a decade now, Europe’s biggest clubs come stateside to take part in glamor friendlies in front of crowds that bump up against — and occasionally surpass — six figures. Fans stake out team hotels, they crowd team buses, all in hopes of snapping a selfie with their favorite star during their once-in-a-lifetime visit to Anytown, U.S.A.
Hershey, Pennsylvania’s own Christian Pulisic, the face of the U.S. team this summer, has won club football’s greatest prize in the Champions League. U.S. defender Chris Richards joined World Cup training camp late, because he’d just finished celebrating Crystal Palace’s UEFA Europa Conference League win a day earlier.
Considering the state of soccer in America now, it’s hard to fathom the reality that faced a team of misfits in 1994. All that we see today can be traced back to that wonderful summer 32 years ago, when Eric Wynalda, Cobi Jones, Alexi Lalas and 19 other men — under the watchful eye of the great Bora Milutinovic — sparked America’s soccer fire.
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