Which Wave Did You Ride In On?

Discussion in 'USA Men' started by rgli13, Sep 23, 2020.

  1. 2in10

    2in10 Member+

    LA Galaxy, Internazionale
    United States
    Jun 19, 2016
    Sparks, NV
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    1994 got me interested, 2002 hooked me.
    I have always been a US supporter no matter the team or sport. There was virtually no soccer info in my area until 1994 including the 1990 attempt to qualify. I think ESPN probably was a big factor in getting soccer into the consciousness of the country since they covered so many sports that were under reported and under covered.
     
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  2. dlokteff

    dlokteff Member+

    Jan 22, 2002
    San Francisco, CA
    This is basically me.

    I was playing competitive U-12 soccer in 1982 and I remember the coach gave us a quiz about the World Cup during it or after it was over. I can't remember the prize (probably no laps or something), but I remember being the only kid who got any right. The other kids on the team obviously had no interest in it, funny.

    As for following the U.S. I don't remember seeing them much in the early to mid '80s, the games probably weren't on. I lived for Soccer Made in Germany though. I know I watched games in the mid & late '80s in Spanish. I was definitely hooked already by the 1990 World Cup. Not exactly sure when I went from general Soccer fan to Obsessed USMNT fan. No specific event, just gets worse by the day!
     
  3. Calling BS

    Calling BS Member+

    Orlando City
    United States
    Jan 25, 2020
    I grew up watching Soccer Made in Germany too on PBS.

    I guess you could say the game it was evident I was a US Nats fanatic was the night before I had to take my SAT test in ‘85 when I stayed up late (past midnight) on the east coast to watch the US lose to Costa Rica and get eliminated from the ‘86 WC on Spanish TV.
     
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  4. bostonsoccermdl

    bostonsoccermdl Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 3, 2002
    Denver, CO
    I played starting my sophomore year of HS (1990) and increasingly got more into it, but 1994 world cup was when my enthusiasm took off. I was a college student in the area for the first MLS championship at Foxboro which was a great experience (sans the downpour.)
    I didn't really follow the Premier League regularly until I was taken to a famous soccer bar (Nevada Smiths) about 18 years ago while I lived in NYC. It was primarily a Man Utd bar, but also had strong Arsenal support, and was always packed regardless so just the environment got me into the league and champions league.
     
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  5. Guinho

    Guinho Member+

    San Jose Earthquakes, bless their hearts
    Estonia
    May 27, 2001
    San Francisco, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    My first soccer memory (aside from playing as a kid. Only sport I ever played growing up) was of Pele with the cosmos playing in LA. Dont remember much but i was in the stadium.

    i followed the 86 cup with my girlfriend in Germany but she was ahuge France fan (“Tigitigitigana!”). I followed the 1990 cup as best I could while living with my mom, but it was really the 1994 Cup and the launch of MLS that did it. I was at Foxboro for that opening match and was amazed to find a guy I had played left back behind his left wing when we were ten playing for the Revs. Good times
     
  6. Dander

    Dander Member

    Tampa Bay Rowdies
    United States
    Apr 3, 2017
    Soccer was a thing for me because of the NASL Rowdies as a child in the 70's. My national team interest started in 94, but became my primary focus in 2010. I miss being able to attend the current USL Rowdies games in person due to stupid covid.
     
  7. Calling BS

    Calling BS Member+

    Orlando City
    United States
    Jan 25, 2020
    I used to go to the Strikers games as a kid. Now an OC supporter. Rowdies have always been a rival for me.
     
  8. Footsatt

    Footsatt Member+

    Apr 8, 2008
    Michigan
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I have vague memories of watching the 86 World Cup. And vague memories watching the US in 90. 94 is when I became more vested. I too don’t recall much from 98.
     
  9. rgli13

    rgli13 Member+

    Mar 23, 2005
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    interesting how many skipped over 98. i may look into it more, but was the tv coverage a lot trickier/less than i remember, did it just lack the spectacle/romance of being here? especially since- clearly those mentioning it- did stick around. like 94 aroused our interest, but it took the run in 02 to properly bed it down.
     
  10. sXeWesley

    sXeWesley Member+

    Jun 18, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Another '94 then lost interest and got back on board for 2002 story here. Which is a little odd because I played that entire time and went to a weird private school that was 80% European kids, so I don't know why I lost interest after the world cup.

    This does kind of make me rethink how massive 2026 could be for us, I was kind of downplaying it in discussing it with others, based on my experience of everyone treating it like the Olympics here and not giving a crap when it was over. This time around there will be so many more players to follow and access by which to follow them that it could be the catalyst to something entirely different.
     
  11. CeltTexan

    CeltTexan Member+

    Sep 21, 2000
    Houston, TX USA
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm that classic soccer dropout kid when my NASL team folded and then the league in 1984. My buddies and I all played down at the YMCA as little guys, but once your team vanishes, so did the sport. However, a decade later and we hosted the Mundial, like many others, this hooked me big time! I mean, changed my life! This love for the beautiful game attachment!
    First actual cap to a Nats game was at old Arrowhead versus Costa Rica in the 2001 Hex. Josh Wolff scored two that day but the ref only gave us credit for one, which came late on. These really good guys from Minnessota snuck in some white smokerz and we lit dem bad boys off after that late goal by Wolff to win it 1-0. We had beaten El Cry 2-0 in Feb, Mathis with the bender to steal 3 points from Honduras in March on the road and then the win at Arrowhead. Starting the Hex like that sure helped ease the pain from Sampson and the '98 fiasco. Of course that team would go on and do up Japorea2002 like the did! Just incredible to think back on that run. Recall that our boys were this goa line handball stopper from Frings
    [​IMG]
    close to equalizing Ze Germans and perhaps making the Semi Finals for the first time since Uruguay1930!!! I mean we were two games away from the Grand Final! Marinate on that won't ya!

    These from TV deliver memories of watching the matches in TV and the fun that returns to a person thinking back on it all. That Summer of 1994!



     
  12. Sebsasour

    Sebsasour Member+

    New Mexico United
    May 26, 2012
    Albuquerque NM
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #37 Sebsasour, Oct 8, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 8, 2020
    My first match watching was when I was 8, we played a 2002 WC tune up game against Uruguay and won 2-1. I watched our next 2 against Jamaica and The Netherlands and was all in on The World Cup.

    Over the next few years I'd watch us whenever we were on, but I couldn't really tell you how World Cup qualifying worked, what The Gold Cup was, or what international windows were. I'd just see what was on ESPN, and watch if The USMNT were playing.

    2008 is when I really understood how international soccer worked, and I watched our opening qualifier against Barbados from an Atlantic City hotel room while my parents went and gambled. I can probably count on one hand the number of USMNT games I've missed since
     
  13. An Unpaved Road

    An Unpaved Road Member+

    Mar 22, 2006
    Club:
    --other--
    I think it goes to show how important it was that the U.S. hosted the '94 World Cup, and how by comparison the '98 World Cup was back to being a niche event here. I was on the edge of my seat in '94, but I didn't even know the U.S. sucked in '98 until years after the actual event.

    Of course, it's natural for interests to ebb and flow as well. I still follow the national team, but I'm not the die hard I was ten years ago. Honestly these days I have enough of a soccer fix between my local USL team and the Premier League. Even in this newfound golden age of Yanks Abroad I don't feel motivated to watch everything.
     
  14. randomnoise

    randomnoise Member

    United States
    Mar 26, 2017
    My first intro to soccer was going as a 5 year old to a Cosmos/Dips game at RFK in '77. I don't remember a lot, but there was a big fight and I think some players red carded (like I knew what that was). And I got to see Pele - I remember my dad making sure I knew who he was. I went to a couple more before the league folded.

    I watched a few WC games in '90, but really started following the Nats in '94, like a lot of other folks. I started attending Nats games whenever I could, including when I lived overseas. My last game was the Jamaica game at Audi Field last year (the one where everybody was booing LOL).
     
  15. RidiculousLichaj

    May 18, 2012
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    this is my story as well. The win vs Spain particularly was the first match that I remember sitting down and watching whistle to whistle. And what a match it was.
     
  16. Three and Three

    Three and Three Member+

    Sep 13, 2015
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    I was born in a city with many Italian and Portuguese immigrants. I was raised in a somewhat preppy area - we were shanty, though, not lace curtain - and soccer at the time was a preppy sport. Soccer was the sport played at recess, in fact. I made the mistake of scoring the game-winner against the fifth grade; I got a wedgie for the efforts, but my teammates carried me off the field. The Mexico 70 final was the first big game that I saw on television. I first saw the US live in Manizales, Colombia in 1983. I flew from Bogotá to Manizales in a twelve-seater. Everyone in the VIP section wanted to talk to me. I ended up with addresses and phone numbers. I ate street food - a delicious chicken kebab - and ended up sick. I played in our region's amateur league for years. The US remains my team, but I also follow Colombia closely. The Republic of Ireland has a place in my heart, too. I've been to many friendlies, WCQs, WC and GC matches. Through playing and following soccer I've made many friends...and enemies.
     
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  17. sXeWesley

    sXeWesley Member+

    Jun 18, 2007
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Good stuff. Can't imagine what that day at '94 WC was like for you as a Colombian American, yikes.
     
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  18. Three and Three

    Three and Three Member+

    Sep 13, 2015
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    I was at the game. I'm not Colombian-American, though, but a mere curious Yank who ended up studying in Colombia long before it was fashionable. My wife is Colombian; I met her at a Grupo Niche show in Providence in 1992.
    I could go on and on about that day at the Rose Bowl. I was torn - remember, Colombia had lost to Romania already - but I was cheering for the US. That was a 2-1 game, there was an own goal, but the US had a perfectly legit goal annulled: Alexi Lalas drilled one from twenty yards.
    Anyway, the Colombian fans behaved impeccably before, during, and after the game. It was as if they were giving lessons in comportment, in sportsmanship.
    Their country had already come along away. There would be other dips in the road. But, as we know, Colombia has advanced, though it doesn't always enjoy smooth sailing.
    We try to visit every two years. Recently we went twice within eight months. I encourage people to at least consider checking it out.
    Hablamos, parce.
     
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  19. LouisZ

    LouisZ Member+

    Oct 14, 2010
    Southern California-USA
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    On tv? 1966 WC but I hardly remember, I was 9. In person, the 1994 at the Rose Bowl.
     
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  20. ChicagoVT

    ChicagoVT Member

    United States
    Jun 26, 2019
    I was a soccer kid of the '90's and early 2000's, but definitely way more into playing than watching professional soccer. Playing and being reasonably good definitely got me hooked. As others have said, watching soccer on TV was next to impossible so I would have probably been more into the professional game had it been more easily accessed. I barely remember the 1994 World Cup but, I do remembering watching some of the games, but definitely didn't understand the importance of the tournament. I had a cool '94 USA World Cup t-shirt I wish I still had. I remember watching the first MLS championship game huddled in a hotel room at a youth soccer tournament with a bunch of my teammates. I also remember taping the 1998 USA World Cup games on VHS. I probably never watched those tapes after that debacle. I remember waking up in the middle of the night for the 2002 World Cup to watch the USA play. That was incredibly exciting. I was also subscribed to a Soccer magazine back then (can't remember the name) and remember reading an article about Donovan when he was still in High School. It was like a next big thing type of article.

    I have always been a huge USMNT team fan first and never have understood why a soccer fan in the US wouldn't be, but there are plenty of people I know that watch the EPL and could care a less about the USMNT. I don't have a specific club that I follow, but I really enjoy watching all the Yanks abroad (and in the Yanks in the MLS). Watching someone like Pulisic succeed over in Europe and prove that American's can play too is awesome. Dude is living out my dream!
     
  21. LouisZ

    LouisZ Member+

    Oct 14, 2010
    Southern California-USA
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Was the magazine Soccer America?
     
  22. slider4CU

    slider4CU Member

    Borussia Dortmund
    United States
    Apr 12, 2019
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Lots of older people here. Kinda surprised.

    Grew up playing soccer and watched the men’s team casually. Moved to a town without a program at 10 and then basically stopped until I was like 25. This coincided with the 2014 World Cup. That team got me hooked. I’m sucked in for life now
     
  23. Calling BS

    Calling BS Member+

    Orlando City
    United States
    Jan 25, 2020
    This has not been my personal experience with Colombian fans. I grew up in S. FL and there was a time between 1990 & 1994 when Colombia basically used Miami as their home city because of death threats from the drug cartel. So there were several US vs Colombia games @ the Orange Bowl in Miami. I was one of the very few US fans that would go to those games. I often ended up wearing someone’s beer home. Lots of derogatory shouts at me in Spanish and the walks back to the car from the stadium were always fun. I always knew what I was getting into and it never really bothered me; it was the small price to pay to support my MNT in the hostel foreign land known as Miami.

    As a side note, I have no personal grudge with Colombians. I’ve spent most of my later playing days being the only gringo on all Hispanic teams. I have tons of Colombian friends and we watch games together all the time. But don’t expect to be treated hospitality if Colombia is playing the US and your a US fan.
     
  24. Three and Three

    Three and Three Member+

    Sep 13, 2015
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    The triumphal streak has gotten worse, for sure. Indeed, I don't know that I'd even bother turning up to El Campín anymore. My direct experiences, however, were of thousands of people behaving like seminarians. That was, of course, long ago, when Colombians were more concerned with image. Still, I remain confident that a US-Colombia game in the Northeast - there are tons of them up here, too - would be a civilized affair. By the way, although the countries fascinate each other, Colombia and Mexico don't exactly see eye-to-eye; there's no love lost.
     
  25. um_chili

    um_chili Member+

    Jun 3, 2002
    Losanjealous
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I remember being vaguely aware of the 90 WC happening but really getting into the 94 WC when it was in the US (i was in SoCal then). Still, I generally like sporting events with a chance to root for the USA so it was not that different than the Olympics, which I also get into when it happens.

    The real changeover for me came in the runup to the 02 Cup. I remember watching the qualifier in Kansas City against Costa Rica, which we won 1-0 on a Mathis goal (or was it Wolff?) but what really cemented my allegiance was going in person to the 2-3 loss to Honduras in DC that nearly knocked us out of qualifying. It was like a trial by fire or something, after that I was never the same. Then I traveled to Boston to see us qualify and was of course dialed in like crazy for the wild WC run to the quarters.

    My involvement peaked in 06 when I traveled to Germany to follow the team in person. That was an awesome experience, save for the suckitude of the games themselves (well, two of three). Now that I have more personal and professional obligations I'm more of a fan, less of a fanatic, but I still watch every game we play on TV or in person on the rare occasions they play in town.
     

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