Summer of '94

In the Summer of ‘94, the USA was hosting the World Cup for the first time. They had been hammered in Italia ‘90, after not even qualifying for the competition since 1950, and needed to make sure that they got good enough within the next four years to avoid an unmitigated disaster on the world’s stage, while on their home soil. Even then, the World Cup was subject to global politics, and early on we see Ronald Reagan standing with Pelé, trying to convince the world to bring the game they called Soccer to the USA. In 1994 it happened, and judging by the state of FIFA today, you can bet that was no accident.

So with four years to go, a squad had to be built, a team had to be forged, and the USA had to learn what football was. We pick up from after the Italia ‘90 loss and follow some of the squad members as they recall their time in the training camp at Mission Viejo, California, along with their coach Bora Milutinović. What we know already, is that we are not talking to a team of winners here. They didn’t lift the World Cup and triumph over everyone in a Hollywood kind of way. However, what they did do is leave a legacy, one that still resonates to this day, and which still has echoes and input into the game even now. The reason we are telling the story of the Summer of ’94 is because it changed the trajectory of football in the USA, and probably the entire world, forever.

The American team only made it out of the group stages, and then got beat by eventual winners Brazil, but that was a great result for them. It didn’t matter that they didn’t lift the trophy; the games they’d played already in front of a home crowd, beamed out and showcased around the world, with their stand-out moments of heroism and brilliance, meant that football was there to stay in the USA, as well as all the money and merchandising that went with it. For a full ninety minutes, and five more for injury time, we relive this journey with some of the team, and Bora, as we get thrown back to the ‘90’s with video footage from tv broadcasts and news stations, as well as some pretty candid, never before seen, behind-the-scenes filming from the team.

The players we meet are certainly on a journey, and so are we as we join them to hear their story, but it is definitely clear that Bora Milutinović is the captain of the ship, even if it seems like he doesn’t know where he’s going. At the heart of the team, and this film, Bora carries us through why everything worked and magic was made that summer with those men. His unorthodox approach to football management is a joy to behold, as it filters out into the men around him, and they bond, building a team for themselves that they can believe in. As Bora goes around playing some sort of free-jazz with his coaching style, the players strengthen their ties at camp, travel the world playing anyone and everyone, and lose their fear of being in front of the world’s gaze. As they talk to us and tell us their stories, we feel the emotion that is tied between them and just what it meant to them to be pioneers of their sport on a frontier that had long rejected it as girly or silly.

So why does this all matter? They didn’t win. It’s not like we’re talking about the Wildcats (1986) here, or anything. Should we really be interested in some athletes we’ve never heard of just because they had a good day, once? And do we really need another plucky American tale, about how they got through by their grit and steely determination, to show that actually, they’re pretty darn great? But the proof is in the seeing. Once you are back in the Summer of ’94, you remember (or see) what it was like to be alive in those days, pre-internet, pre-mobile phones, pre-personalised advertising, and you get to see how football was built in America.

In just one team of young men, most of whom had been criticised or ridiculed for their choice to play, and who were not celebrities or made rich or included in college sports, America had to build an entire industry and a sustained cultural interest off their backs. Their story is one of quiet resilience and bravery in the face of all odds, it exists outwith and in a time before media and merchandising rights got to them, it’s a personal story of knowing who you are and succeeding by your own merits. And that’s why it matters.

To see how football is now, with the World Cup once again coming to America to be the biggest show on Earth, under the auspices of the Orange Emperor, it is easy to see why this story matters today. With FIFA following the money in recent World Cups, showing a corrupt nature in their dealings, a disregard for human rights issues, and a willingness to fawn over dangerous oligarchs in order to further their own agenda, the story of America doing something right is extremely important. What these men did was stand up for their country, they lost all ego and selfishness, stopped their complaining and noise, sucked it up when it hurt, and got to the business of showing themselves and their country off to its very best. They weren’t ever in it for fame, fortune, and legacy, even if they got that in the end, but only to not embarrass their nation in front of the world, and this is perhaps something a certain few other Americans could do with thinking about.

Summer of ’94 is a story of good, old-fashioned, American triumph from the before times, that reminds us of just how we looked up to them in those days. It may be difficult for another story of American triumph, especially one which looks like a cash-in on the upcoming World Cup, to find an audience elsewhere around the world, but that would be to the detriment of all those who dismiss it. Hopefully though, it will be Americans who come out to see it, to remember (or find out) what it was like in the 90’s, when the level of the USA’s embarrassment on the world’s stage only extended to the performance of its newly anointed soccer team, and that the fear of not being very good at something was enough to bring the nation together in a positive, constructive way.

If you’re looking forward to this year’s World Cup, or even if you’re not, and if you’re American, or even if you’re not, a trip back to the Summer of ’94 is a good way to build yourself up for what’s to come this summer at USA ’26.