At the 1994 world cup, America sought to encourage its young kids to dream of being professional soccer players by bringing the world cup to the states. Some young teens where inspired by the tournament and this generation produced a golden crop of american players, these are the ones discovered in 99-04 (donovan, beasley, dempsey, twellman) who have brought further attention to the sport through their international successes over the last five years. of particular note was Landon Donvan who admired the skills of Hagi in a classic match between Romania and Argentina; But someone was suspiciously absent from that game, and that world cup. Pele had seen world cup glory and failure, before returning to dazzle the world at his last world cup, the same can be said of Zidane. This is the mark of the true legends. The same too could have been said of Diego Armando Maradona, except his swan song was cut short; after just two matches, someone decided that Maradona needed to be drug checked and the findings led to Maradona being banned from the remainder of the tournament. Let's face it, the fact that the Colombian guy who scored an own goal (that led to America's only win in the world cup) was murdered had already put a damper on things. And if I recall, the world cup was competing for america's attention with the O.J. Simpson thing. To have, on top of that, banned the best player in the world from the tournament made for a somewhat duller world cup that fizzled out with a lackluster final; the only world cup final ever to end 0-0, whose most memorable moment is when a not-quite-as-good-a-superstar-as-maradona missed the decisive penalty. Italy was not good enough to be in the world cup final, they only got so far because Baggio had a bit of magic and the teams italy played in the knockout round where inexperienced. That Brazil had some magic, but not enough to really dazzle the world the way they did in 1970 and 1982. With Maradona in that tournament it could have been Argentina in the final against brazil/romania/germany/italy which would have been the greatest advertisement on the sport a host nation could ask for. To inspire that generation to play, America needed the greatest world cup ever. Kids don't understand how amazing a sport can be is unless you show it to them at it's very best. Why would American kids be interested in a sport with 'hype' but a lackluster and forgettable final match when they had Michael Jordan and the NFL? Think of the Mexican kids who witnessed the glories of Pele and Maradona and dreamed of world cup glory which drove so many of them to try to be players. America didn't even have a league at that time and it needed that world cup to be huge, which, combinded with the decent economic times of the late clinton years, would have given the sport a much greater boom early on. This is why we are all aching so bad to host the world cup again...because the last time just wasn't satisfying enough. Diego Armando Maradona's swan song was to dazzle America and inspire a generation of 90's kids to dream of world cup glory. It was ment to be and America blew it. War on Drugs be damned, we could have won three world cups by now.
That’s an interesting perception there. It’s apparent that you’re harboring bitterness about Argentina potentially having three WC titles depending on if Maradona played, more so than you care about his legacy or the inspiration it could have given children. First, winning isn’t everything. Second, many kids, myself included, played the game and strived to be our best before ’94 simply because it was our favorite thing. Football itself is enough inspiration.
Holy Jesus Christ, what a horror show this OP is. The War on Drugs was apparently responsible for Maradona being banned, and not, say, FIFA and/or WADA. That's some concentrated stupid, right there.
Actually, Donovan's all-time favorite player is Roberto Baggio, so that seems to have worked out alright.
Still trying to figure out why it was Americas fault teams didn't play well? So was it South Africa's fault the 2010 final was a disgraceful showing?
Two things: It took me 5 minutes to read through the entire thing as I had to re-read stuff to make sure I read it right the first time. 2nd: That is 5 minutes of my life lost to mindless crap! I'll throw a third one in there: WTF?
Besides, Maradona was already well past his prime and badly out of shape in 1994. He was 34, and he'd already had a 15-month ban for doping. His performance in the two games he actually played in 1994 was pedestrian. I seriously doubt that the Maradona of 1994 would have changed any of Argentina's results.
I don't disagree with the author really, but on the other hand the 94 World Cup gave exposure to the newer world football stars Like Romario, Bebeto, Stoichkov and US stars like Balboa, Harkes, Wynalda and many more
So it was Americas fault Maradona got busted doing drugs? So it was Americas fault OJ Simpsons committed (IMHO) 2 murders and was in the news?
I don't think the author really blamed America for causing OJ and Maradona's drugs to happen or it being "Americas fault", but those things happening didn't reflect much positive on soccer or anything really, and didn't help 94 being the greatest world cup ever, however anyone can judge that as well.
All that is true, but.....there was absolutely nothing "America" could have done to make the final more entertaining in 1994. The truth is, it was a huge watershed for the game in this country, helped birth a league and raise the profile of our national team and pretty much demarcated the modern era of the game in this country. To say that we'd be farther along if it would have been a 3-2 game is speculation at best and downright silly at worst. Because there is absolutely no way to know that.
I agree. A great WC 94 final match didn't occur, I tried to rewatch this match on VHS about 10 years ago or so, pretty long and dragged out and boring through extra time but until the penalty shootout of course. America was Unlucky really to have a boring final, but no real crime though as many other Championship games in other sports can tend to be boring and lackluster from one's perspective. America did well in USA 94 -USA finding a way to face eventual champion Brazil and to help in creating the MLS and all that, I agree, but one could argue that what Korea did in 02, Germany did in 06 and France in 98 and so on may be just as great if not greater too. America didn't necessarily blow it but unfortunately had its share of shortcomings in the nation occur to prevent what could have easily been an even better historical achievement.
This may be the stupidest thread in the history of the "Soccer in the USA" forum. And that is really saying something.
My money would have been on whitestarwarriors or the good deacon. Always nice to start a new year with a new brand of crazy.