Echoes From Caligiuri’s ‘Shot’ Still Being Heard
It was a decade ago Friday that soccer’s “shot heard round the world” was fired.
It was fitting, therefore, that the player who fired it, Galaxy defender Paul Caligiuri, was on hand in Boston to mark the anniversary of his momentous 1989 goal against Trinidad & Tobago in Port of Spain.
The former UCLA player’s strike not only gave the U.S. a 1-0 victory and a place in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, it propelled the sport into the minds and consciousness of more Americans than ever before.
The goal put the U.S. team in the World Cup for the first time in 40 years.
Since then, the U.S. has played in two more World Cups--it hosted the 1994 event--and Major League Soccer has gone from a vague idea to reality. In the women’s game, the U.S. has won two world championships and an Olympic gold medal. Soccer participation, overall, is at its highest level yet.
Caligiuri, 35, called the 1989 victory “probably the turning point for soccer in this country.”
“To think that I was part of it and [to realize] what has occurred since then is incredibly fabulous,” he said. “I can’t take credit. I scored a goal, but the victory is what it was all about.”
Caligiuri has no illusions about matching the feat today when the Galaxy plays Washington D.C. United for the MLS championship at Foxboro, Mass.
“My job is not to go forward and shoot,” he said. “I’ve got to cover [D.C. United strikers] Jaime Moreno and Roy Lassiter. But as Pele once said, the ball is round, so who knows what might happen.”
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Former Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano, who was fired after the Galaxy began the 1999 season with a 2-3 record, may soon be announced as the new coach of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, according to a source close to the Galaxy.
The Galaxy was a scoring machine in 1998 under the offensive-minded Zambrano, setting an MLS record with 85 goals in 32 games and going 24-8. But a sweep in the playoffs at the hands of the eventual champion Chicago Fire and this year’s slow start led to Zambrano’s dismissal.
The MetroStars, who were coached by Bora Milutinovic in 1999, finished an MLS-worst 7-25 while scoring a league-low 32 goals and giving up a league-high 64.
Zambrano will not find a completely empty cupboard at the Meadowlands next season, however. German star defender-midfielder Lothar Matthaus, the 1998-99 German player of the year and former FIFA world player of the year, has signed a contract with MLS to play with the MetroStars in 2000.
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Carlos Hermosillo has the golden touch when it comes to championship matches.
The Mexican icon has played in seven title games in his career--four with America, two with Cruz Azul and one with Necaxa, all in the Mexican first division--and has been on the winning side six times.
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D.C. United has qualified for the final in each of the league’s four seasons, a fact that brought a quick comment from Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid.
“We’d like to thank D.C. United for inviting us to their annual championship game,” he said.
