On this week’s American Soccer Show Dave Denholm and was joined by Dave Brett Wasser, considered one of the foremost historians of the game in this nation.

The three historic games we focused on in the show were the 1989 World Cup qualifier in Port of Spain against Trinidad and Tobago, the 1993 US Cup match in Foxborough versus England and the  1995 Copa America match in Uruguay against Argentina.

Players in BOLD scored goals in the match.

Trinidad and Tobago   0-1  United States

November 19, 1989  Port of Spain T&T

This match put the United States in its first World Cup finals since 1950. Paul Caliguri scored the lone goal of the match on a 25 yard volley.  The loss eliminated Trinidad and Tobago from the World Cup in 1990 and it would take several years for the small island nation’s football program to recover fully.

The US Squad that day:       (4-4-2)

—————————-  Tony Meola ————————————-

———————John Doyle——————-Steve Trittschuh———-

——Mike Windischmann——————————————-Brian Bliss

————————Paul Krumpe (John Stollmeyer)————————

—Tab Ramos—————John Harkes—————-Paul Caliguri——-

——————–Bruce Murray————–Peter Vermes——————-

United States  2-0 England 

June 9, 1993  Foxborough, Mass 

Graham Taylor’s England squad were struggling in an ill fated World Cup qualifying campaign when the Three Lions came over to play this match.  The US was coming off a 2-0 loss to Brazil and would lose a seven goal thriller to Germany four days later in Chicago. Tom Dooley and Alexi Lalas scored the two US goals, both off set pieces and both while individual pieces of skill demonstrated the shambolic defending England has become known for in the past fifteen years internationally. The US squad was substastially better than the team fromthe 1990 World Cup. Why? The US had naturalized three outstanding European club players who were eligible for American passports, Tom Dooley (Kaiserslauten, Bayer Leverkusen), Earnie Stewart (Willem II) and Roy Wegerle (Chelsea, QPR, Blackburn, Coventry). Of the three only Wegerle had previously lived in the United States, and he had in fact grown up in the U.S. and even played NCAA Soccer and in the NASL before becoming a lethal goal scorer in the English top flight. But it was the naturalization of Dooley in particular that got the attention of the U.K. press after the match who tried to dismiss the US victory as based on the gates of Ellis Island. Ironically this was much the same allegation the British press had thrown at the US after the 1-0 American victory over the English in the 1950 World Cup.

The US squad that day:  (5-3-2)

————————————–Tony Meola—————————————————–

–Des Armstrong——John Doyle—–Mike Lapper—-Fernando Clavijo——–Jeff Agoos————

Tom Dooley–(Alexi Lalas)———–John Harkes——————–Tab Ramos–(Cobi Jones)—

——————-Roy Wegerle—————————-Eric Wynalda (Earnie Stewart)————-

 Argentina 0-3 United States 

July 14, 1995, Paysando, Uruguay 

Arguably the most impressive victory in the history of the US National Team. Simply put this is the best game I recall the US playing since I have been following the National Team (beginning in 1983). Interim Coach Steve Sampson came out with an attacking lineup of a 3-5-2, which at times looked like a 2-5-3, as the US confidently went forward and showed an attacking prowess we never saw before and have hardly ever seen since from the the national team. Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and Frankie Klopas scored goals for the stars and stripes as we won our group in the Copa America and advanced to play Mexico in the Quarterfinals. The US run ended in the semifinals in a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Brazil when Frank Klopas almost buried a late equalizer.

The US squad that day:  (3-5-2)

——————————-Kasey Keller—————————————–

—-Marcelo Balboa (Mike Burns)—–Alexi Lalas———————Paul Caliguri

———————- Tom Dooley——————–John Harkes——————

———-Cobi Jones————-Earnie Stewart——–Frank Klopas (Tab Ramos)–

——————-Joe Max Moore——————–Eric Wynalda—————— 

Listen to this week’s American Soccer Show at 2pm ET/11 am PT Tuesday March 4th to hear Dave Brett Wasser’s detailed accounts of these games.  For more information on Dave’s soccer video collection visit  davebrett.com.

For his detailed post match reports during the Pan Pacific Championship for the New York Times visit http:\/\/goal.blogs.nytimes.com/