Long before Landon Donovan and Jozy Altidore, Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard, long before qualifying to the knockout stage of the World Cup became an achievable goal, a squad of amateurs and no-names traveled to Port of Spain, Trinidad to attempt the improbable.
Paul Caligiuri’s left-footed goal on a November afternoon in 1989 booked the United States ticket to the 1990 World Cup, ending a 40-year drought on the world stage, and planting the seeds for what has become a soccer renaissance in this country.
“It brought us back into the international mainstream,” said U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, who along with former U.S. soccer president Alan Rothenberg and Werner Fricker were integral in the sport’s growth off the field. “It brought us back because of the World Cup. If you’re out of the World Cup for 40 years, it doesn’t matter how passionate you are about the game, you’re not part of the international game in the same way.”
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The United States hosted World Cup ’94, Major League Soccer was born two years later, giving young American players such as Donovan, Altidore and Howard a league of their own, and the U.S. national team has qualified for the World Cup five consecutive times since traveling to Italy in 1990, advancing to the quarterfinals in 2002.
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And many of the national team’s top players, including Clint Dempsey, Maurice Edu and Oguchi Onyewu, are regulars in the world’s top leagues, including the English Premier League and Italy’s Serie A.
“It’s an amazing growth of the game and all of it is built off of that ’90 team that qualified for the World Cup and showed what could be for years to come,” said Peter Vermes, the Kansas City Wizards coach and technical director.
Vermes, a native of Willingboro, N.J. and a former Rutgers standout, was the lone player on that team to be playing regularly in Europe as a forward at Raba ETO FC in Hungary. The rest of the squad was comprised of relatively untested recent college graduates.
“You remember that group for how young they were and how important it was and getting tested at the highest level,” U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley said.
The United States’ first game in the World Cup in 40 years was a 5-1 drubbing by Czechoslovakia in Florence on June 10, 1990. Four days later, the Americans traveled to Rome to meet the mighty Italians in front of 73,423 fans thirsty for blood.
Giuseppe Giannini scored the game’s lone goal in the 11th minute and the United States, at least for 90 minutes, showed a glimpse of what was to come. Despite being heavy underdogs, the Americans weren’t intimidated by Italy, earning a measure of respect for a 1-0 loss. The U.S. lost to Austria, 2-1, on June 19, ending its World Cup.
But a spark was lit.
“I think what it did was set the stage for the future,” said Vermes, who nearly equalized, but was robbed by Italian goalkeeper Walter Zenga. “We can play with teams, we can be somewhat successful in these games.”
Vermes, along with fellow New Jersey natives and former MetroStars greats Tab Ramos and Tony Meola, John Harkes and the others on the 1990 team were pioneers. Now anything but reaching the second round is a disappointment.