'It Changed Everything': Reliving The 1994 World Cup As Told By USA Legends

For me and many others, this particular World Cup completes a full circle. I was a literal child when the 1994 World Cup arrived on these shores. I fell in love with the event thanks in large part to a bunch of unknown American players with some epic hairdos and hideous faux-denim jerseys. 

Before we turn toward this year's 48-team extravaganza, let's hear from some of the men who represented the Stars and Stripes 32 years ago and from others who were impacted by that epic summer. 

Chapter 1: The Preparation

With no domestic league and only a smattering of overseas players, the U.S. Soccer Federation turned the national team into a de facto club team, signing players to contracts and training full-time in Mission Viejo, California, in the years leading up to USA ’94. 

Cobi Jones | Midfielder/Forward: In 1994, hardly anyone was paying attention to soccer.

Eric Wynalda | Forward: We were trying to prove to the American people that we didn't suck.

Mike Sorber | Midfielder: Nobody even knew who we were, what we were. Nobody knew anything. The media knew nothing about soccer. It was considered a foreign sport.

Tab Ramos | Midfielder/Forward: There were people who had no idea the difference between soccer and lacrosse. So we were all used to selling the game.

Tony Meola | Goalkeeper: The idea that U.S. Soccer had to put us together was crazy. But I realize how important it became, in the end, to build that group. There wasn't a guy there that wasn't ready to fight for the next guy.

Hugo Pérez | Midfielder: This is a team that was basically together for three years.

Ramos: Out of the 22 players on the final World Cup roster in '94, something like 14 or 15 didn't even have a club.

The squad trained year-round under their new coach, Bora Milutinović. Under the well-traveled Serbian manager, the U.S. went from a defensive team that just tried to survive against top opponents to one that tried to go to-to-toe.

Sorber: We needed an international coach. The American coaches only wanted guys who could run and were physical. But we always had that. We needed football IQ and brains. Bora wanted guys who were smart and could figure things out and make plays.

Pérez: Bora, when he came in, on one of the first days said, "We're gonna change the way we play football in this country." He believed in keeping the ball, possession. And he picked the players to do it.

Meola: No host nation had ever not made it to the second round. That was always something that we had in the back of our minds. I think every one of us said "it's not going to be us."

Chapter 2: Ready For Showtime

Few thought the U.S. would advance in the World Cup, especially in a group that included two stout European squads (Switzerland and Romania) and a tough Colombia squad. 

Wynalda: "You guys won’t get out of the group." That was all we heard. Every sponsor was like, "don't f*** this up." It was bad. The pressure on us was immense.

Pérez: Between ’91 and ’94, we played more than 80 games internationally, all over the world, against the best clubs and national teams. I think that was a key factor in our preparation. Because when we arrived at the World Cup, we knew we could play against anybody.

Ramos: After all those results, we thought, "Hey, you know what? We're going to force all these teams to play their best to beat us." It wasn't so much that we were great. But we knew we were good enough to really compete.

Sorber: I remember specifically [English journalist] Paul Gardner at the draw. Paul says, "Do you think you can get out of the group?" I said, "Absolutely." He was blown away. But I’d already played Colombia, Romania, Brazil. Were we better? No. But we were right there.

Chapter 3: Against All Odds

The U.S. opened against Switzerland on June 1994 at the Pontiac Silverdome, home of the NFL's Detroit Lions. It was the first indoor match in World Cup history. After falling behind, Wynalda’s sensational free-kick goal salvaged a crucial point and a 1-1 draw.

Wynalda: The night before the game, I took two free kicks in the Silverdome. If I don't hit those, I don't know the flight of the ball in that stadium. I realized I don't have to hit it that hard. 

So I was standing over the ball, trying to control my emotions and all this adrenaline and just calmly hit the same way. And it actually went exactly where it was supposed to.

Next up was a date with Colombia at the Rose Bowl. The U.S. won 2-1, in part due to an own goal scored by Colombian defender Andres Escobar. The U.S. captured the imagination of what had been a skeptical American public, though it was dampened by Escobar’s murder in Colombia days later.

Alexi Lalas | Defender: There was this David-Goliath type of narrative that led up to that game.

Pérez: Colombia was coming to the tournament, they hadn't lost in three years. Everybody was saying that they were favorites to win the World Cup.

Wynalda: When we beat Colombia — and I have to say, when Escobar got killed it was horrible, we’d exchanged jerseys a bunch of times, he was a friend — that's when we won over the public.

Sorber: The Colombia game changed everything.

Lalas: That was certainly a defining type of moment, a touchstone. It was the first time America was proud relative to the game of soccer. That was something that America had never experienced before.

Sorber: The next day, there’s twice as much media there. At least.

Jones: We're the USA, right? We like winners.

Wynalda: The next game, against a really good Romanian team, was the first time I felt the belief from our supporters. It was the first time that they felt that they could back us.

Chapter 4: The Dream Run Ends

Losing 1-0 to Romania in the group finale meant that the U.S. had to face mighty Brazil in the round of 16 at Stanford Stadium on July 4. Milutinović elected to bench Wynalda and insert Perez in midfield in place of suspended captain John Harkes. The home side played the entire second half up a man but without Ramos, whose skull was fractured by the flagrant elbow that got Leonardo red-carded just before the break. But Brazil won on Bebeto’s 73rd minute goal, ending the Americans’ run.

Pérez: Everybody thought that they were gonna destroy us, and it turned out to be the opposite. 

Wynalda: That was the worst day of my life.

Pérez: At halftime we passed by the locker room, and I could hear guys complaining. They were nervous. They didn't know why they were not beating us, so they had, they got battle, they were nervous. We had the momentum. Unfortunately, we couldn't finish it off.

Pérez: For me, it was the biggest game so far in the history of our country. …We were able to play them without any fear. I still think we could have won the game.

Wynalda: I saw Bora in Miami a few years ago and said, "We could’ve beaten them if you would’ve f***ing put me on the field." I had to get it off my chest.

Chapter 5: Legends And Legacy Created

The Americans had done their country proud — even if they didn’t immediately realize the impact the tournament had made not just on mainstream America, but on the country’s youth.

Landon Donovan | Midfielder/Forward | USA ‘02, ’06, '10: It’s crazy to say, but prior to 1994, I had no clue that anything like the World Cup existed.  I knew nothing about soccer.

Maurice Edu | Midfielder | USA '10: I can still see Bebeto scoring. I remember thinking, "Come on Tony, you can save that!"  

I was only eight, but I remember damn near everything. Eric scoring that free kick against Switzerland, the Colombia game and Earnie Stewart’s goal, and obviously the own goal and what happened after that, unfortunately. Seeing the guys after the Colombia game walking around the pitch with the flags draped around their shoulders? Those images, they live with you.

Jones: Especially as I've gotten older, more people talk about the fact that they watched me during the 1994 World Cup, that I was an inspiration to them within the Black community and even beyond.

Pérez: The importance of what football is right now in this country, a lot has to do with that team in ’94.

Sorber: How good that team was doesn't get discussed enough.

Wynalda: The legacy of '94 is that it was when people fell in love with the game, when they actually thought for the first time that we're not going to stink at this.

Lalas: I'm talking to you today because of the summer of ’94.

Ramos: I can't tell you the number of people who say 1994 was the first time I really got into soccer.

Donovan: There’s no question the 1994 World Cup helped propel me to wanting to be a pro.

Sorber: It doesn't get discussed enough, how good that team was.

Wynalda: I think we were proud that America was finally proud of us. That was not the case until the 1994 World Cup.

Chapter 6: A Big Opportunity

This summer, a new generation of U.S. players – led by star forward Christian Pulisic and dynamic midfielder Weston McKennie – get the rare chance of playing a World Cup on home soil. Will they capture fans' hearts like their predecessors in 1994?

Ramos: If we win the first game of the [2026] tournament against Paraguay, the whole country will be behind the team. It’s hard to understand for people that didn't live the experience of 1994.

Lalas: It's going to be fun to see who emerges from this group, in terms of that attention that you know inevitably is going to come.

Ramos: The current group is just so much better in every way. These are seasoned soccer players. A lot of them are going to their second World Cup. For them, it’s not about competing. … I was disappointed with Mauricio Pochettino when he said we competed really well against Belgium in March, because we've been doing that for 40 years already. We have good players. I don't think we get excited about competing. We get excited about achieving the results we're not supposed to.

Meola: There's somebody today that has no idea who Christian Pulisic or Weston McKennie are. And a month from now, they're never going to forget them for the rest of their lives.