https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...A4BwQGksN_oYE9HuIX4adPL78zmBZjWyVAcHWkoushjXU Talk about staring into the abyss. Only 40 days after the U.S. Soccer Federation was awarded the privilege to host the 1994 World Cup, the U.S. Men's National Team faced the possibility of being eliminated from contention to reach Italy for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. After playing Jamaica to a scoreless road draw in Kingston on July 24, the Americans were confronted with a must-win match at the Louis Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo. on Aug. 13, 1988 or face the utter disappointment of not being able to qualify for the world's greatest sporting spectacle. "We found ourselves at a make or break approach," defender Desmond Armstrong said. "We needed desperately to move forward. Everything, we were told, hinged on us not just for our own personal careers, but for the future of the game. It was imperative that we qualify. We felt the heat of having the weight of soccer's future on our shoulders in that particular game." The USA also hadn't competed in a World Cup since 1950, when the USA shocked England – and the world -- with an historic 1-0 triumph in Brazil. "Any game is a problem, but this for us is a must win and if you can't beat Jamaica you must pack it in," U.S. head coach Lothar Osiander said. "This is the lifeline for us." Since 1950, the USA had failed to book a World Cup place nine different times, always struggling and usually unable to get past Mexico, who had become a giant nemesis. Even when El Trí hosted the World Cup in 1970, the Americans were eliminated in the semifinals by Haiti. With Mexico receiving another automatic berth in 1986, that seemed to be the best time to break the skein. Needing but a draw or a win against Costa Rica in the final day of semifinal round qualifying, the USA dropped an excruciating 1-0 result to the Ticos before a pro-Costa Rican crowd at Murdock Stadium at El Camino College in Torrance, Calif. on May 31, 1985, exactly a year to the day ahead of the Mexico ‘86 kickoff. An 18-year-old John Harkes (pictured above), who was entering the University of Virginia that fall, watched the game with his father via closed-circuit television at the Scots-American Club in Kearny, N.J. "To just fall short like that, it was heart-wrenching," he said, “especially seeing the guys on the pitch representing us and how good they were, knowing that they were quality." Harkes, who hailed from the same area as goalkeeper Tony Meola and midfielder Tab Ramos, was a ball boy at Cosmos games and idolized the likes of U.S. captain and Cosmos midfielder Ricky Davis. "I learned from those guys," he said. "The '85 [qualifying] was a disappointment. It pushed us on to qualify for '90 a little bit more." A day before the USA was awarded the 1994 tournament on July 4, 1988, they received another gift from FIFA as Mexico was banned from international soccer -- including Italia '90 - for two years after using four overage players at the Concacaf Under-20 qualifying tournament for the FIFA world championship in April. The top two teams in the region would qualify for Italia '90, and Mexico wouldn’t be there to stand in the way. Still, the USA had to navigate past Jamaica to earn its spot in the 1989 Concacaf Championship – a five-team precursor to today’s Final Round “Hexagonal”. After the 0-0 draw in Kingston two weeks earlier, the USA rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Reggae Boyz before a capacity crowd of 6,100 at St. Louis Soccer Park. Brian Bliss tallied the USA's first qualifying goal in the 18th minute, but Jamaica’s Alton Sterling equalized in the 54th. Then came the play that broke open the match, when second-half substitute Hugo Perez was tripped by Dave Brooks - others claimed it was a dive - in the penalty area. He converted the ensuing penalty in the 68th minute before another substitute -- Bruce Murray -- set up goals by Frank Klopas and Paul Krumpe in the 76th minute and 78th minutes with Klopas adding a second five minutes from time. WATCH: USA DEFEATS JAMAICA 5-1 IN WORLD CUP QUALIFYING ON AUG. 13, 1988 It was the highest goal total the USMNT achieved in one match since a 6-2 World Cup qualifying victory against Bermuda on Nov. 2, 1968 in Kansas City. As it turned out, the USA might have wanted to save some of those goals for the final round. Osiander was a part-time coach when he wasn't taking care of his day job as the maitre d' and before that, a waiter, at Graziano’s, a San Francisco restaurant. Several weeks later, he guided the squad at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. While the young U.S. squad failed to get out of its group, the experience helped start a unique team bond. Players such as goalkeeper David Vanole, defenders Mike Windischmann, John Doyle, Paul Caligiuri, Krumpe and Armstrong, midfielders Brian Bliss and John Stollmeyer, Ramos and Harkes, and forwards Bruce Murray, Vermes and Klopas helped form the nucleus of a team that would manage to survive a rollercoaster ride through Concacaf qualifying in 1989. The team further bonded at the 5-A-Side FIFA World Championship (now the Futsal World Cup) in the Netherlands in January 1989, surprising Belgium in extra time in the third-place match on Jan. 15, as Vermes had a brace and team captain Windischmann one goal. "The thing about that team in particular was that we didn't have a consistent league to play in," Ramos said. "So we tried to get as many games as possible where we could get them. It was really important for us to attend all the international competitions we could, regardless of what type of game it was and to come home and play as many games as possible." Added Bliss: "For us, it was probably more important than any other country's national team because we didn't have a professional league to hone our skills. We relied on our spirit and camaraderie maybe more than we did our knowledge of tactics or maybe some on the ball qualities we probably didn't have. "We had tons of time together. When you're cooped up in hotel/dorm rooms depending on where you were, the bonding was tremendous. That helped carry the day." Only one day after the Five-A-Side final, U.S. Soccer announced Bob Gansler (pictured below) as new USMNT head coach. A U.S. Soccer Staff Coach since 1975, the 47-year-old Gansler was about to lead the U.S. U-20 squad at the FIFA U-20 World Championships in Saudi Arabia and was also the coach of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Because of the financial instability of coaching at the international level, Osiander wouldn’t quit his job as a maître de in San Francisco – he remained a USSF staff coach and wound up as the 1992 Olympic coach. Costa Rica loomed in the first two final-round qualifiers. The Americans were hopeful of repeating their 1-0 win from 1985 but went down to defeat by the same score on April 16 on midfielder Gilberto Rhoden's 14th-minute goal before 26,271 at Estadio Nacional in San Jose. The defeat started a long line of frustrating results for the USA in and around the Costa Rican capital. Exactly two weeks later, the Americans exacted their revenge in a 1-0 victory at the St. Louis Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo., but it was not without its drama. First, they waited until the 72nd minute to score -- Ramos fired a shot from just outside the top of the penalty area that glanced off a defender's foot and into the corner of the net. Second, Costa Rica had two apparent goals, both shot by midfielder Hector Marchena, called back by Honduran referee Rodolfo Meija Martinez. In the eighth minute, Marchena's goal was called back for an offside call, and in the 77th, his diving header was disallowed because of a handball. With time running out, Vanole raced off his line to meet a cross and then let the ball slip through his hands. Defender Steve Trittschuh, covering Vanole's back on the goal line, stopped the resulting chance with his hands and a penalty kick was whistled. Benched against Costa Rica two weeks earlier in San Jose, Vanole did his best to disrupt the penalty-kick shooter, defender Mauricio Montero. "I tried to psyche the guy, but he wouldn't look at me, and maybe his not looking meant I had him," Vanole said previously. "I felt I knew exactly what he'd do, and the ball came at me like a pumpkin. It was huge. [While] It was probably coming at me at a hundred miles an hour, it was in slow motion to me." Montero's poor attempt was hit straight on, and Vanole literally saved it with his neck, sending the overflow crowd of 8,500 into a frenzy. The save preserved the 1-0 victory and earned the USA a huge two points in qualifying. WATCH: VANOLE PUTS NECK ON THE LINE TO PRESERVE 1989 WIN VS. COSTA RICA But the World Cup qualifying gods giveth and they taketh away, as two weeks later the USMNT squandered another home win by allowing Trinidad & Tobago to equalize in the waning minutes for a 1-1 draw in Torrance, Calif. The USA was clinging to a 1-0 lead behind Steve Trittschuh's goal with two minutes left. After Vermes cleared the ball into the Trinidad half, Brian Williams took control and knocked a long pass toward Hudson Charles, who ran into opened space, drawing defender Trittschuh with him. Two players raced for the ball -- Windischmann with an outstretched foot and Trinidad forward Marlon Morris, who got there first to gently head it to Charles and had only Vanole to beat. The U.S. got an opportunity to redeem itself against Guatemala on June 17 in New Britain, Conn. -- a 2-1 victory behind goals from Eric Eichmann and Murray. Originally scheduled to play away at El Salvador on July 25, the game was postponed until Sept. 17, and would instead be played at a neutral site in Tegucigalpa, Honduras due to crowd unrest during El Salvador’s match with Costa Rica on June 25. That day, fans from the capacity crowd of 40,000 threw fruits, bottles and pennants onto the field to protest their team's poor performance in a 4-2 defeat to the Ticos. Gansler had some three months to prepare for the next qualifier, and he decided to try something that was a bit unorthodox in U.S. Soccer, giving the nod in goal to 20-year-old Meola, who was about to enter his sophomore season at the University of Virginia. Three of the Americans' final four matches were going to be played on the road in the Caribbean and Central America where the USMNT was going to be tested on and off the pitch. Gansler already had been through the perils of away qualifying as a player and assistant coach on the 1978 and 1982 qualifying teams. "There were always elevators that would get stuck on game day," he said. "The menu had been indicated to them and somehow they never had the right food. The buses -- we knew where the stadium was, and we knew that we should have been going north, but we were going south as we were going to the game. We were on the first floor of the hotels when we asked not to be on the first floor. All night there would be pick-up trucks circling outside the hotel and I think their horns were stuck. “This is part of it. You say that to other people, and they say, 'Well, that's an excuse.' Well, no it's a reason. Others will say no that didn't happen. That’s fine. You know that you have to deal with it. And if you make it about, 'Oh my God, what are we going to do?' No, you just deal with it. Ear plugs are allowed." Gansler then laughed.
I haven't finished the full article...work keeps getting in the way, but I either forgot or didn't realize the Mexico wasn't eligible in 1990 which made it easier to qualify (kind of burst my bubble). Sadly, while there is a lot of good memories since then, I kind of feel like back at the time where USMNT is at inflection point to what will be next...
It didn’t help us at all. And the fact that US Soccer put out a recap article that perpetuates this myth is....I would say shocking....but it is the USSF so incompetence should be expected. Ten teams played home and homes to qualify for the final 5 team round with the top two advancing to the WC. Mexico was drawn against Costa Rica (who ultimately qualified ahead of the US in the final round.). The final round was going to be either Costa Rica or Mexico....never both. So Mexico getting DQ’d gave CR a free pass to the final round but had absolutely no affect on our qualification.
This is very interesting, and news to me. I had only been aware of the myth that Mexico's absence made qualification a lot easier for us, so I appreciate the clarification. I do have to say though, that sounds like a ludicrous qualification system. Considering that Costa Rica finished first in qualifying (and went on to do pretty well at the World Cup) and Mexico was easily the best team in the region at the time, pitting them against each other in a single-elimination preliminary round qualifier before the final round robin stage would have been very harsh to one of them had Mexico not been disqualified. But I guess the seeding for those match up's were based on FIFA rankings, and Costa Rica apparently wasn't seeded high enough to avoid that possibility.
Seeds were based in FIFA rankings at the time according to WIki. But for some reason I recall that the seeds were allocated to North, central teams separately
Thanks for the additional info. Yeah, the cynical me enjoyed the article to a certain extent, but mainly thought of how US Soccer keeps promoting 1990 more and more...probably trying to erase the memories of the last qualifying round and current lack of direction (other than making money). Look at how many people have not replied to this post...at least on BigSoccer, I would say US Soccer is in trouble...
Qualifying for the 1990 World Cup is probably the biggest success story in our history. Failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup is probably the biggest failure story. If there is one takeaway from Couva, it is MANAGE RISK! This was a management failure of epic proportions. Never forget!