Was this the most dramatic (US) World Cup cycle ever?

Yes but in the wrong stage.

 

I feel like that game against Argentina is looked over and forgotten a lot. Just in that game did we see what the US can do to inspire the US. Howard stopped Julio Cruz 1v1 THREE times. The crowd that was clearly 75%-25% in favor of Argentina at the beginning of the game slowly and surely began to even out and by the end of the game, no one wearing albiceleste could be heard over the chants of "U-S-A!"

 

A bit partial to the 2001-2002 cycle.

The rise of Clint Mathis:

 

5 games that stood out for me from the 2000-2002 cycle, in no order:

1. Guerra Fria 2001. Mathis, Wolff et al hook up to send Mexico home with a 2-0 scoreline.

2. US wins 2-1 off Clint Mathis free-kick in San Pedro Sula in Honduras.

3. US Portugal 3-2. Surprising the world by getting a great result against a team that most declared a dark horse to win it all prior to the World Cup.

4. US-Mexico, Jeonju South Korea 2002. Another in the 2-0 scoreline.

5. US-Mexico, Los Angeles, CA 2000. Donovan's first ever goal against Mexico with the senior team. The first of many to come.

 

This cycle and this World Cup still has nothing on the 2000-02 cycle and World Cup. As amazing as the Algeria win was, you couldn't beat the nauseating spectacle of having two televisions during the USA/Poland fiasco.

People forget that in the 2000-02 cycle, the USA came dangerously close to not qualifying. TWICE. The drama of Mazatanango, where the US was cheated out of three points from the referee, only to be cheated out of a Saprissa draw (Before Malian refereeing, before Ghana 06, before Mr. Dallas, there was Jamaican me Crazy). After a dour draw against the Ticos in Columbus, I remember the final anus-puckering spectacle of USA vs. Barbados, a game we needed to win. Sure, the USA won 4-0, but we had to endure 70 minutes of Algerian soccer before the dam(n) broke.

Later, during the Hex, we actually lost at home to Honduras, and had a sub-par draw with Jamaica. We actually got back on track with a stirring post 9-11 win, a game that was not shown live. This after a strong opening, dominating Mexico and raping Honduras at San Pedro Sula.

Furthermore, that cycle also included the 1999 Confederations Cup and the 2002 Gold Cup, two of the best tournaments the USA ever played. The 1999 Confederations Cup featured a team fielding MLS benchwarmers DESTROYING the full strength German national team. It also was the closest we ever came to beating Mexico in Azteca. Seriously. Only an extra time Golden Goal sealed Mexico's win. And the 2002 Gold Cup was a fun tournament, where the US really built up momentum going into the World Cup. And let's not forget that our Olympic team nearly medaled in that cycle.

That was the beauty of the 2000-02....Some games, the US looked like absolute worldbeaters. But we also had stretches where we actually looked worse than the 98 team. Bob Bradley had stinkers, for sure, but Bob's teams always fought back...And even during the big wins, even during our win against Spain, there was always a sneaking feeling that we could have done better. Bruce Arena's games either had the USA bombing the opposition, or meekly giving up to give up an embarassing loss.

Great list. I would also add-

6. US-Germany, 2002. Sure we lost, but we lost only because referees and some genetic throwback named Oliver Kahn. PS- That was the World Cup game, the 2002 friendly against Germany was not as fun.

7. vs Italy, 2002. Here, Landon Donovan and John O'Brien dominated the Italian National team. It was fun to hear the Italian fans boo their own team off the pitch at halftime. And we lost that game on a shady call, as usual.

8. vs. Mexico, 2000, New Jersey. Ahh..The Hubris bowl. This time, Mexico sent UNAM Pumas as their full national team, supplemented by about 3 other internationals. The result? An embarassing 3-0 loss to the Yanquis. Ay Caramba.

9. vs. Japan, 2000 Sydney Olympics. No, not a full international, but still fun. Back then, I lived in Los Angeles, and I had a lot more access to the Japanese media. And back then, there was this guy named Hidetoshi Nakata who was really good. There was also a lot of great Japanese players and many people in Japan thought that the Blue Samurai were medal favorites, and were going to go deep in their world cup. When they met Landon, John O'Brien, and Josh Wolff...Well...You know the story. The Japanese butthurt was..Well..Hilarious.

10. vs. Iran, 2000. This was the first time I saw the US get outplayed in the first half, come back, dominate possesion, and then equalize. Since it was against Iran, it was basically a "This is what would have happened if we had Bruce Arena instead of Steve Sham-son" match. Great crowd.

Honorable Mentions- The 2001 World Cup qualifier in Kansas City, still one of the best crowds I've ever been a part of, and the fun USA v. Netherlands game in Foxboro, 2002.

 

Can't believe Metroflip adn Wessoman are discussing the top games of the '02 cycle without mentioning the home WCQ against Jamaica. First US game post-9/11, packed house (including Jamaican fans joining in on the "nuke Bin Laden" chants), last competitive game at the old Foxboro Stadium, the US wins on an 80th-minute PK and then a few minutes after the game the team is huddled around a cell phone at midfield, explodes in celebration, and then the crowd does the same when the scoreboard shows that T&T had won in Honduras and locked up a WC spot for the US. IIRC Honduras was in 2nd place heading into the game (and was coming off a win over the US in DC), and T&T had yet to win a game the entire Hex or even get a single point on the road.

As far as most dramatic cycle, it's between '02 and '10. In both '98 and '06 we qualified without too much trouble then bombed out in the WC itself.

 

That was an incredible weekend. I remember waking up early the Saturday morning before and watching Beckham put England into the World Cup at Old Trafford. I never thought we'd be able to match the dramatics of that game on Sunday afternoon.

 

The sad problem with that game is that the game was not broadcast live. Unfortunately, when the game was broadcast, I had already followed it on Matchtracker, making the game a formality, and I cancelled plans to go to a bar and watch it to view it comfortably in my living room. Still great to hear the crowd sing at 9:11.

But yes--That game was awesome and I have been tainted by my experience. Certainly goes into the top 10 list. (Man, the 98-02 Cycle really was the most exciting time for USSoccer)

 

I was ignorant of BigSoccer at the time so I was following along on CrewFan.com (part of the MatchNight network so I don't believe it exists anymore). One of the guys there linked to a Jamaica radio broadcast, and we were all flipping out in the chat.

How far we've come in terms of coverage of the USMNT.

 

Well, it wasn't so much "going far". On that day, the US invaded Afghanistan, so it was a dramatic turn of events. NFL games were being preempted.

 

True: but if it was 6-7 years later I'd imagine JustinTV would have a stream somewhere. My dial up modem wasn't really conducive to that back then.

 

If anybody wants to disagree with arkjayback, that's fine, but I see where he's coming from. In this last cycle, the USA frequently pulled out results when it seemed all hope was lost. A lot of late game equalizers and winners. There was no quit in the US team. In contrast, the Arena period of 1998-2002 was awesome, but the US frequently folded if down a goal. Sure, the US team was coached better, but there was a lack of confidence at that base level.

 

After our September '01 meltdown (Honduras @ RFK; Saprissa), qualification was VERY much in doubt. I never ever had that feeling the previous two cycles.

Let's think about that time period: MLS was barely treading water; about to FOLD two teams, SSS development was painfully slow (Metro/Dallas), and let's not forget the ghosts of '98 were still haunting this team.

The USMNT wasn't known as the competent top 25 side it is today; reading through a lot of the tournament previews that spring, we were still favorites for 32nd place @ Japorea.

Call it hyperbolic if you must, but I TRULY believe the future of the game in this country was on the line if we didn't pull it out in Foxboro that October. We would've recovered eventually but we're talking about putting the game back in this country a decade or so, IMO. And who knows what happens to MLS.

And that's not even counting the signifigance of qualifying for the World Cup in our first game after the 9/11 attacks. Dramatic? That's ********ing Hollywood, man.

 

The comments about Arena's teams is another reason that the over the top comments about Bob Bradley irritate me, yet people wanna put Arena up as the gold standard.
His team's were either boom or bust. There never seemed to be any middle ground with him.
After Slovenia went up 2-0 this past WC, I still felt like we had a chance to atleast tie it; as Wassoman said, with Arena, if we were down 2-0 the game was essentially over, no doubt.

 

This game was particularly tense because it was the first match of the semifinals (which, at only 6 games, doesn't give you a ton of room for error) and because we went down a man early thanks to some uncharacteristic stupidity from Cherundolo.

 

Another match from that '02 cycle that deserves mention:

The home match with Guatemala from the semi-final round in 2000...

A packed, rocking, and pretty pro-US crowd was rewarded by Brain McBride's 71st minute "The Building is Shaking!" goal...remmeber that we were actually down a man at the time due to an Eddie Lewis red card...

(Eddie Lewis?????)

One other thing about that goal - Ty incorrectly credits Reyna with sending the pass out wide to Jones for his cross to McBride. If you look closely, you realize it was not the #10 shirt who started that play, it was the #19...

Jovan Kirovski...who never became the superstar those of us around at the time thought he would be, but had several moments in this cycle where he did the shirt proud...

 

Jovan Kirovski made a great pass in that game, and also in a 1999 Friendly against Germany, where we destroyed the mannschaft in a 3-0 rout. I remember during that Guatemalan game just how good Kirovski was. He was solid.

But it should be known that Eddie Lewis's red card was entirely the result of Guatemalan playacting. Eddie brushed his elbow at the diminutive player's chest, he went down like he was hit with an M136. The Mexi-ref gave him a straight red to what should have been a yellow.

But yeah, in those minutes after the sending off, coming off of the loss at Saprissa and the draw against Guatemala, there was real danger of the USA not qualifying. And it got ugly late in the hex too, as you mentioned.

 

Not even after our Dec. 1, 1996 meltdown against Costa Rica down there or our Oct. 3, 1997 meltdown against Jamaica at RFK? You must have been taking tranquilizers.

 

During the Sampson run, I was genuinely pleased we actually qualified. During that series to France 98, the goal really was- Can we just get to a World Cup without hosting in a full CONCACAF field? Anything after getting to France 98 was gravy.

This is why the 02 cycle was so dramatic- We actually expected to qualify and win our home games. So when stuff happened, it was really worrisome.

 

Not a fan yet.

 

I was referring to '10 and '06.