For most players, the World Cup is the zenith of their career. The chance to represent your country on one of the biggest stages the sport has to offer is an experience that isn’t easily replicated. And while the Champions League sucks up plenty of oxygen around the game and elevates players to legend status in its own way, the fact that the World Cup happens once every four years makes for a unique atmosphere and memories that linger long after an edition of the tournament is done.
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That is especially true for players from the United States, a country whose tortured relationship with the game has added to the difficulty of the journey. Here’s a look back at what it was like for players to take part in their first — and for some, only — World Cup, and how the sense of achievement can grow over time.
Eric Wynalda | 1990
The 1990 World Cup was notable for the U.S. in that it marked its first successful qualification campaign in 40 years. And it was a wet-behind-the-ears side that ventured to Italy to take part. The team was sequestered at the Olympic training center in Pisa. For 20-year-old Eric Wynalda, that made for a shock as the team bus got closer to Florence’s Stadio Comunale and its game against Czechoslovakia.
“We were just training out in the middle of nowhere, and the only time that we knew the World Cup was going on was when we saw it on TV,” he said. “We didn’t have a feel for it. So the overload when we got to the first game was a little bit too much for us, because it was like, ‘Oh my god, this is real.'”
That was the case with Wynalda most of all. He was sent off seven minutes into the second half for pushing Czechoslovakian midfielder Jozef Chovanec after getting his foot stomped on.
Wynalda said he actually should have been sent off before that, such was the way he was going about his business. Prior to that, he made a tackle from behind that in this day of age would have been a red card.
“When we played against the Czechs, I was a mad. I went to war,” he said. “I didn’t know. I stopped playing soccer because I thought this was some sort of fight, and soccer really was the secondary component of it.
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“They saw that I was angry. They saw that I was acting out. They were all on alert. And I got baited. I got baited like the rookie that I was.”
Wynalda was forced to watch the American’s respectable 1-0 defeat to hosts Italy from the bench, before coming on as a sub in the group-stage finale against Austria, a 2-1 defeat. It meant Wynalda had to come home carrying the shame of getting red-carded, but the experience proved formative for players who ended up forming the backbone of the 1994 team.
“I think in that World Cup, two things happened,” he said. “We were reminded how far we have to go. And then some guys said that was it. That was the pinnacle. But then there was John [Harkes], Tab [Ramos], Marcelo [Balboa] and myself who were like, ‘We want more.’ We got a taste of it. And then it became an obsession for us. At least it did for me.”
Cobi Jones | 1994
There was much that was special for the U.S. in the 1994 World Cup. There was the joy of playing a World Cup in your home country. There was also the thrill of performing well enough to reach the knockout stages.
But for Jones, what stands out is what came before. While a few U.S. players like Ramos, Harkes and Wynalda were playing in Europe, manager Bora Milutinovic built the bulk of the team through a residency camp over multiple years, many of whom had never played for a professional club. Jones emerged from the college program at UCLA to make the final roster.
“The World Cup isn’t just the month,” Jones said. “It’s the whole buildup for it. There was a lot of time and effort where everything else in your life gets put to the side. We did double days for a good year, and a few months. So imagine that every single day, for months at a time, where you get maybe one or two days off. So it was difficult. But it did culminate in an experience that can’t compare to anything else.”
For Jones, the fact that he made the final roster was the best kind of gift, in that it was unexpected. And he parleyed that into a super-sub role with the U.S., coming off the bench in all three group-stage games before starting the round of 16 defeat against Brazil on the Fourth of July.
Onyewu had been a youth international teammate of both Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley, and to see them excel at the 2002 World Cup provided plenty of motivation. But he gives credit to then-U.S. manager Bruce Arena for bringing him into the team slowly, and getting him used to the environment.
“When I did have my opportunity, I wasn’t caught off guard,” he said.
By the end of the cycle he was a mainstay for both the U.S. and club side Standard Liege. That doesn’t mean there weren’t some butterflies when he took the field in the opener against the Czech Republic.
“It’s the culmination of a lot of things,” he said. “You’re definitely nervous. You’re at the biggest stage, the pinnacle of your sport.”
It proved to be a difficult competition for the U.S., which couldn’t match some incredibly high expectations heading into the tournament. And Onyewu found himself on the receiving end of a controversial penalty decision that proved to be the difference in a 2-1 loss to Ghana.
“If there was ever a need for VAR, this was the need for VAR,” he said. “That penalty definitely deflated some of our sails. To say it was a wrong call is an understatement, but this is how it goes.”
Onyewu still took away some positive memories. There was the 1-1 draw with eventual champions Italy. There was also the level of support the team received, with U.S. fans adding to the atmosphere.
“The stadiums were fantastic. The fan support was fantastic. The fan zones were amazing,” he said.
