What everyone remembers now, about the 1994 World Cup in the United States, is two misplaced kicks. The first came from Motown legend Diana Ross, whose penalty kick during her performance for the opening ceremonies rolled wide of the goal, despite being taken from the impossible-to-miss distance of 5 yards. The other was by Colombia defender Andres Escobar, who turned a United States cross into his own net — and was murdered weeks later, ostensibly for that mistake.
But for American soccer, the most important kick of all came from U.S. striker Eric Wynalda, during the tournament's opening game — a free kick that was perhaps the most important shot in U.S. soccer history.
It's impossible to forget how widespread the expectation of failure was for the United States at the 1994 World Cup. The team qualified for the 1990 edition almost by accident, thanks to Mexico being banned for fielding an ineligible player in a youth tournament. Things didn't go well for the Americans, who were on the receiving end of three hammerings, including an ugly 5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia.
When 1994 rolled around, the soccer world expected more of the same from Team USA, sneering at the home team's chances. Attendance was expected to be uneven, if not minuscule, and the idea of playing the World Cup in a country with little soccer history was widely held to be a mistake. More than 73,000 people were in the stands at the Pontiac Silverdome for the first match, pitting the underdog Americans against Switzerland. As the first half rolled on, the Swiss dominated the game, and when Georges Bregy looped a free kick over the American defensive wall and into the top corner in the 39th minute, most American fans feared a repeat of the Czechoslovakia debacle.
That it didn't happen is a testament to Wynalda.
In the final minute of the first half, the U.S. won a free kick more than 30 yards out from goal. The striker, who'd been sent off in the 5-1 loss four years earlier, launched a laser-beam free kick that could not have been more perfectly placed into the top corner of the goal, cannoning off the crossbar and into the back of the net. It surprised everyone, even Wynalda — he later called it "the goal of his life" — and it rescued the United States, just as it appeared that the team would be laughed off the field. The game ended 1-1.
Four days later, the draw gave the U.S. enough confidence to stand tall against Colombia, riding Escobar's own goal and a second-half counterattack goal on to get the team's first World Cup win in 44 years. And everything that's happened since in American soccer — Major League Soccer, the rise and fall of the men's national team, rival leagues such as the NASL — all can be traced back to the successes of the 1994 World Cup. And it all started with one free kick, from a distance the Swiss never feared, from a team that everyone expected to fail.
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