"Somebody said it the other day — 'We could have screwed up soccer if we don't get out of the group.'" That was Marcelo Balboa, speaking last month ahead of the USMNT's final game before the 2026 World Cup, and the line cuts right to the heart of what 1994 actually meant.
Not a celebration. A warning about how close it all came to going the other way.
The U.S. had no professional outdoor league, no pipeline of players in Europe worth speaking of, and a team where most of the squad — because they weren't playing professionally — had been living in a residency camp in Southern California for over a year just to get ready. They knew they weren't winning the tournament. They knew what the real target was: get out of the group, generate a buzz, don't embarrass yourselves in front of the country you're trying to convert.
The games that changed the trajectory
A draw with Switzerland opened things up. Then came Colombia — a side with Carlos Valderrama, ageing but still Valderrama — and the Americans stunned them. Andres Escobar's own goal went in. Earnie Stewart added a second. They lost to Romania in the final group game but advanced as one of the best third-placed sides. Brazil knocked them out in the Round of 16, but by then the damage — the good kind — was done.
"We bled, we fought, we scratched, we found ways to get out of that group," Balboa said. That's a fair summary. Nobody expected it. A lot of Americans watched. Some of them kept watching.
Two years later, Major League Soccer kicked off its first season. By 2002, the USMNT had Landon Donovan, Brian McBride and Claudio Reyna and reached the quarterfinals. By 2018, not qualifying for Russia was treated as a national crisis. The shift in expectations alone tells you everything about how far things moved.
What 2026 inherits
Now the USMNT goes into a home World Cup with Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Tim Weah — players with genuine European pedigree, not just passport stamps. "Soccer in the United States has grown amazingly," Stewart said. "All these soccer-specific stadiums, all these players overseas in really good leagues."
The 2026 tournament won't make or break the sport the way 1994 did. That foundation is solid. But how deep this team runs will shape the next growth curve — whether US soccer gets another explosion or just keeps its steady climb. The '94 generation bought the ticket. This one gets to find out how far the ride goes.
"All we wanted to do was set up a foundation," Balboa said. "Every other generation could build on it." They did. Now it's Pulisic's problem — in the best possible way.
