Twenty years ago the modern era began

On 19 November 1989 -- twenty years ago today -- Trinidad & Tobago and the USA met each other in Port-of-Spain for their final World Cup qualifier match for the 1990 World Cup in Italy.  The circumstances and consequences of that match have made it the most important match in US soccer history, and marked the start of the modern era in American soccer. 

I must admit that I don't have very vivid memories of the match.  I was in high school at the time, I didn't have cable television, and I only remember the match because the sportscaster of the local TV station mentioned the result as an afterthought.  You know, one of those "Oh by the way, in soccer, the US qualified for the World Cup.  Now back to you, Bob" sentences.  I do remember Paul Caligiuri appearing on the Pat Sajak show (anyone remember that?!) and being interviewed about the match.  But in the years since, I have seen tapes of that game, and the more I think of the match, the more its importance grows in my mind.

Consider the background to the match.  The USA, under the direction of Bob Gansler, were really struggling to find a goal.  They had failed to score in the previous two matches and now required two points to qualify.  Trinidad and Tobago, in contrast, had won their last two matches and needed only one point to become the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup finals.   To top it all off, T&T would be the home team.

Not only were the USA struggling as a team, they were struggling as an organization as well.  The  USSF could be described as weak, unorganized, incompetent, or a combination of all three.  The outdoor professional game was semi-pro, and that was being charitable.  The USSF was awarded the 1994 World Cup finals as an incentive for developing the domestic game, but most people didn't know about it.  There were rumblings that FIFA, dissatisfied with the lack of progress on planning, would take away the finals from the USA and award them to another country (rumored to be Germany).  Simply put, there were a lot of things riding on the result of USA-Trinidad & Tobago, and there was literally no tomorrow, for the US national team and for the sport in general, if the USA didn't get two precious points.

The game was played in the national stadium in Port-of-Spain under blue sun-drenched skies.  The stadium was filled with Trinidadians wearing red clothing, creating an imposing atmosphere that I'm sure very few players on the US squad had ever experienced before.  Everyone in the tiny country was expecting a Trinidad victory (and a draw would definitely be a victory), and the government had proclaimed that the following day would be a national holiday.  The match was very tense, and the quality of the football wasn't that great.  Then, in one of the few US forays downfield, Tab Ramos received the ball on the left and passed to Paul Caligiuri in the center of the field.  With no opposing player closing in on him, he strode forward about ten yards and with his left foot from 25 yards out.  And scored.  I cannot describe just how miraculous, and how out of place, this goal really was.   The remaining hour of the match was spent soaking up wave after wave of persistent, yet ineffective Trinidadian pressure, and then the referee blew the final whistle.  For the first time since 1950, the USA was in the World Cup finals.  As the Uruguayan Alcides Ghiggia said after the famous 1950 World Cup Final, "It was incredible - our shouting was the only thing you could hear."

So what has happened in the space of twenty years?  The sport has established itself in America in a way that did not happen in 1930 or 1950.  We've seen a wildly popular and successful World Cup tournament hosted in the USA.  We've seen the USA's participation in final tournaments become habitual, and expected.  We've seen a domestic league, after several starts, fits, contractions, and convulsions, establish itself among sixteen teams in fifteen cities in the USA and Canada (and soon to be eighteen teams by 2011).  Young players, perhaps at the age that Landon Donovan was in 1989, were starting to look at soccer as a possible career path instead of that "safe" activity before launching into other sports.  Instead of playing in high school football stadiums, the US national team is playing in large NFL or compact soccer-specific arenas, with large cities bidding for the right to host a home World Cup qualifier.  Soccer matches from all over the world have become easy to find in this country, whether on domestic cable or satellite.  Now, some of these events might have happened had the USA failed to advance to Italy in 1990.  I advance that most would have taken much longer to occur, and others might never have happened. 

I know it's early today, but I haven't seen much on the 20th anniversary of the game.  The USSF's website didn't mention the game at all ten years ago, and still doesn't mention the match on its site today.  I find that especially disgraceful -- the USSF, in its present form, wouldn't even exist had it not been for that game.  I still can't find the lineups from that day [if anyone knows them, please let me know].  It's unfortunate that it's so hard to find out about a match of such importance to the game in this country, but so it goes.  But while we watch the MLS Cup final this weekend, we should reflect on that day in Port-of-Spain 20 years ago and wonder what US soccer would be like had Caligiuri's moment never happened.

[Parts of this post were originally written in 1999 on the rec.sport.soccer USENET group for the 10th anniversary of the Trinidad & Tobago-USA qualifier.  I've updated and corrected some parts of what I wrote then.]

Comments

[Eric]

I think I got to watch that game. But I might be imagining it. It's been such a long time. I did take off work to watch the Italy - US game in '90, so I was obviously aware of it.

It's really weird to look at how far things have come, and remembering writing posts back and forth with you and others 15 years ago on r.s.s. It's very weird to realize that our time on r.s.s. was just a few years removed from Caligiuri's goal.

[Riccardo]

hi...nice blog...really...why don't we exchange links? visit mine and let me know if you are interested in it
Riccardo
Sport City-Calcio