the sellout crowd of 8,500. It was decided to start Dino Vanole in goal. Vanole had a charismatic personality— he would enter the field with small American flags tucked into his gloves.
Tab Ramos, with an assist from Bruce Murray, scored in the 72nd minute. In the closing minutes, however, Vanole mishandled a cross and the resulting play saw Steve Trittschuh handle the ball on the goal line. By today’ s Laws of the Game, Trittschuh would necessarily have been sent off. Surprisingly, Costa Rica sent a back defender, Mauricio Montero, wearing number 5, to take the PK. Vanole wisely held his ground, expecting a PK hit with power rather than placement, and the shot hit him square. He then had to recover, making another save resulting in a corner kick. The 1-0 win and the two points earned kept the U. S. in the World Cup qualification hunt.( Two points for a win back then).
Ironically, it was Steve Trittschuh who scored the lone goal in the next game, a 1-1 draw with Trinadad and Tobago, with the opposition’ s goal coming in the closing minutes. Another point lost at home.
Before the next qualification game, there was an important Marlboro Cup Tournament in Giants Stadium in New York / New Jersey. Dino Vanole arrived at the pre-tournament camp injured and Jeff Duback started our first game against Benfica of Portugal. We needed to find an emergency back-up goalkeeper and Tab Ramos and John Harkes recommended their boyhood friend Tony Meola who lived nearby. And as luck would have it, Duback was injured in the opening match with Benfica and Meola would have to finish the 2-1 U. S. win. Meola would then start the final match against the national team of Peru two days later.
( As an aside: Bob Gansler left the team to attend the graduation ceremonies of two of his sons in
Milwaukee. Walter Chyzowych asked if I needed help with the team, which I declined. An arrangement was made that we would contact Gansler by telephone at halftime, as the game was televised, and he would then provide input for the second half. First half goals by Bliss, Ramos and Murray rendered the call more of a friendly conversation and the score held.)
Vanole was healthy enough to play our next qualifier, a 2-1 win over Guatemala in New Britian, Connecticut, with goals from Murray and Eichmann.
After another slew of friendly games— a trip to Italy, two games in California, one in Philadelphia and another in Miami— qualifying resumed with an away game against El Salvador which was played in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as El Salvador was barred from using its home field due to previous fan disturbances. A goal by Hugo Pérez and a brilliant performance by Tony Meola, who had regained the starting position, preserved a 1-0 victory.
Meola then followed with another shutout in a 0-0 away tie with Guatemala, who were outshot 16-7. Scoring goals had become more difficult, especially as we faced opponents who were mathematically eliminated from winning the group and just“ parked the bus.” This was most evident in a seemingly mustwin game against El Salvador on November 5. The match ended 0-0 at our Saint Louis Soccer Park home despite a 12-5 differential in shots and 13-3 corner kick advantage. Another point lost!
At this point in the seven qualifying matches, the U. S. had scored only five goals! But it had given up only three!
So, qualifying would come down to the final game, a now-famous must-win scenario against Trinadad and Tobago.
U. S. Soccer arranged for a full week of training in Cocoa Beach, Florida, and brought in the Bermuda national team to simulate our upcoming opponent. We barely scraped by in that preparation game, ending 2-1 on goals by Doyle and Eichmann, and there was pessimism in the press and elsewhere about our chances. There were also rumors that if we did not qualify for Italy, FIFA could withdraw the 1994 World Cup from the U. S., as no country had ever been awarded the World Cup in modern times without first qualifying on its own.
The rest is history! The match saw Caligiuri’ s“ Million Dollar Goal,” a stingy defense anchored by Mike Windischmann and Meola’ s fourth straight shutout!
The U. S. was going to the World Cup for the first time in 40 years! n
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