The following week, Sampson actually called up Michael Mason's twin brother, Marco. Marco Mason probably never made it through training camp. I believed he was playing in the lower division in Germany.
And wasn't he MVP of MLS at like 40?!? Meola is another one. Left the MNT for many years, acted, played for the Jets then came back and was on the 2002 WC roster.
Keep in mind that we only played the 3-6-1 for 60 minutes against Germany and then scrapped it and went 3-5-2 for the rest of that game, the Iran game and the Yugo game. Sampson's most underrated and forgotten mistake was changing the entire lineup around for the Iran game in an apparent panic, even using Ramos and Joe-Max as d-mids. It was Ramos who was injured at the time who got burned on the first Iran goal. We still would have won if we finished a few of our early chances by Wegerle. I could go on about this disaster forever.
I don't disagree with your point. Wegerle should not have been on the 1998 WC team. But to be fair, he only played in 3 qualifiers, scoring the 2 goals against Canada. I wouldn't call them meaningless. The 1st one made in 2-0 and sealed our qualification to the WC. The other games he played in were the 0-0 tie at Mexico and the 1-0 win vs. Costa Rica. And at the risk of sounding like I'm missing the point, it was only a 7 game scoreless streak!!! http://www.sams-army.com/index.php?Mlist=player&Pid=20
Meaningless is probably too strong a word, but how about "mostly meaningless?" They were late-game insurance goals against an opponent who had given up (and had no offense, anyway), in a game that wasn't a must-win. My source was soccerhall.org, which lists him as having appeared in these seven games, plus the Austria friendly. (I checked another source, and Wegerle did play, but only as a late sub.)
I remember watching Snyder in the CISL. For a long time I thought he was the best defender in the league, and in 1996 he could have started at center back for most of the teams in MLS.
Klopas didn't actually play in the NASL. He was on the Sting's roster but never played for them outdoors. He played indoor, but I don't remember if that was the MISL or when the NASL played outdoors. Wegerle and Sanchez are the only ones to actually play in both.
After the World Cup in 94, I got MAJOR soccer withdrawl so I bought season tix to my local CISL team, the Washington Warthogs. The team's star defender was Troy Snyder and he was a very good indoor player. Also on that team were Dante Washington and Eric Eichmann, who was on the 90 WC team. Speaking of the CISL and germain to this thread, the 95 CISL Rookie of the Year was Mark Chung, who definitely had an odd national team career. The guy has 24 caps but 22 of them came before he ever played pro soccer, as he was in residency. Bora apparently was high on him, just not high enough on him to put him on the WC team. But since he turned pro, and has been a very good one, he's gotten all of two caps, one each from Steve Sampson and one from Arena, in Bruce's first game as national team coach. When you think of all the players to be capped more than twice under SS and Bruce, combined, it's kinda amazing a guy whose been as good at the club level as Chung isn't one of them.
Nice catch. I had forgotten about the acting and placekicking--although I don't think Meola ever made it into an official game, did he?
I worked with Dr. Ben Zinn... and I didn't remember him saying he was capped by the USA... but I did know some of his story. The man is brilliant in combustion by the way.
Man that guy has an interesting name. Look it up at http://dict.leo.org/ - no wonder he probably emigrated to the United States.
Aldo Teo "Buff" Donelli was also an interesting player. He had the most lethal strike rate in U.S. Soccer history. He played for the US twice netting 5 goals. He was the first player in US history to score 4 goals in a game. After WC 1934, he was offered a contract with Lazio, but, instead, he went to become an American football(as in gridiron)coach. Among the records he held in American football: -- lost only 4 games in his career while coaching 4 years at Duquesne University. -- first coach to coach professional and NCAA football at the same time. -- last coach to lead Columbia to an Ivy League title. When I was in college, Columbia was known as the worst football team in America. link2 link --
When I have rep to give out again, I'm giving it here. (Walks away mumbling and shaking his head, still bitter about the Germany game... "fu(kin' Mike Burns.." )
Good call. Played for LA Lasers of MISL, Atlas in Mexico. Later plays for Miami Fusion. STARTED fullback in USA WC'94 and made by my count 8 passes - 7 of which went directly to Swiss players! Next game against Columbia - FERNANDO CLAVIJO Starts! Cle Benched by BORA FOREVER!!! Cle never wears the USA kit again!