Team America: when the USMNT became a club side ... and finished last
|
Version 0 of 1. Before Team America would become a title associated with puppets, it was used as a moniker for the United States men’s national soccer team, who, for a season, decided to try their hand at being a club side too. In 1983, America’s premier soccer league, the North American Soccer League (NASL), was on its last legs. Recent seasons had seen the ageing, overpaid foreign stars suck finances dry, as attendances shrunk and teams went bust. The success of Pele and the Cosmos in the late 1970s had resulted in an all-too-rapid expansion: teams, owned by many trying to emulate the Cosmos model, had popped up all over the country, only to disband when the fans (and money) never came. The fortunes of the national team were not much sweeter. Few of the US players were well-known or getting game time - their chances stifled by foreign players who saw NASL as some sort of a retirement home. As a result, USA had not qualified for a World Cup since 1950, when a plucky group of amateurs stunned England 1-0 in Brazil. The task facing the NASL commissioner, Howard Samuels, was essentially one of do-or-bust. What was decided upon was a joint venture with the USSF that would see the national team, under the title Team America, join the NASL as a club, hoping to boost the fortunes of both league and the nation. Based in Washington, DC, overseen by a New York businessman, Robert Lifton, and playing in the Robert F Kennedy Stadium, Team America would loan national team players from their respective clubs, as long as both the player and the club agreed. Samuels and USSF’s hope was that this concept would see all areas of American soccer benefit. A strong national team could inject excitement into a sport that was popular amongst first- or second-generation immigrants, but was always looking to attract more Americans to the stands. (The US’s Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Winter Olympics was seen as a prime example of how international success could drive interest in a sport.) There would also be a focus on the 1986 World Cup, which due to Colombia pulling out, was still looking for a host nation just four years before kickoff. With the hosts automatically qualifying, it was thought that Team America would show the bidding committee a commitment to on-field development. The idea was novel, the ambitions high. But the Team America experiment - a concept that barely resembles anything before or since - would ultimately fail. In January 1983, coach Alkis Panagoulias and his team hosted a series of tryouts, which would select the best 20 players from 39 invited from the NASL, Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) and American Soccer League (ASL). Though some of the country’s best would opt to take part, others - such as Rick Davis, Winston DuBose and Juli Veee - chose not to become involved. “There were those who were a little more reluctant, a little more hesitant towards it.” Jeff Durgan, who joined Team America as a 21-year-old from the New York Cosmos, told the Guardian. “And rightfully so: they were concerned about what they would be giving up, what they would be walking away from - moving away from their homes and families.” Durgan said that there was no disdain towards the players who chose not to join the experiment. He believed that perhaps a more suitable alternative for the US men’s national team would have been to improve the preparation for international matches, rather than setting up a team in DC. “Typically for a World Cup qualifier, we would show up in the host city - and especially for those home games - a day or two before the qualifier, come together as a group, maybe train once, go out there and try and qualify for a World Cup,” Durgan says. “When you compare that to now and the facilities, the number of players who are brought in from around the globe and the choices that national team staff have from a player pool, I think it’s advanced to where it needs to be - that would have been, I think, a better investment at that time.” These suggestions were unlikely to impress the World Cup committee as much as a club-meets-country hybrid squad though. Instead, Team America existed as a mish-mash of some of the States’ top stars, those looking to make an impact on the international stage and naturalized players. “I got involved because I had just become an American citizen,” says English-born Alan Merrick, who played more than 100 times for West Bromwich Albion before embarking on a career in the US. “If it would have been funded correctly, it would have cut down the number of years it’s taken the national team to get to the level it deserves.” The season started well, with Team America winning eight out of their first 13 games, including a victory against the New York Cosmos. However, what followed was nothing short of a disaster for a team that was originally intended to showcase the best America had to offer. During the final 17 games of the season, Panagoulias’ side recorded just two wins. In an attempt to improve results, Lifton and the backroom staff even reached a point where they approached clubs to try and loan US-eligible players on game-by-game basis. It did not work. The season ended with Team America’s goal tally standing at 33 in 30 games; they were flat bottom of the league (a 10-20 record). This drastic dip in form coincided with financial losses for the club and attendances at RFK Stadium averaging just 12,000. Moreover, prior to the end of the season, in May 1983, Fifa would name Mexico as the host nation of the 1986 World Cup, despite the country hosting the tournament in 1970. “Where we were as a country in the global sport of soccer, I would have been surprised if we would have gotten the World Cup,” says Perry Van der Beck, a midfielder who had moved to Washington from the Tampa Bay Rowdies. “But it wasn’t out of the question: eight years later they did get it, in 1994.” Failing to win the 1986 World Cup bid meant that USA needed to qualify for the tournament from the Concacaf region. They would, however, not make it - eventually losing a crucial home tie to Costa Rica in 1985, having failed to make it past the first round of the Olympics soccer tournament the year before. Between those interviewed for this article, there were mixed opinions on just how much of an impact the failed World Cup bid had on the end-of-season results. But without the guarantee of playing in the tournament through hosting, and investment in the team, the league and the USSF lacking, Team America would disband after just one season. It is believed that the main reason for the team’s demise was that funders could only justify keeping the team afloat were there the prospect of financial rewards off the field or if the club (and national team) had been successful on it. Team America showed neither. The players, many of whom had packed up their families to move to DC, would go off in search of new teams. What followed was a public blame game between the USSF, Lifton and Samuels, before the NASL disbanded at the end of the following season. With the league struggling even when the team was formed, Jeff Durgan questions if the bigger picture was ever really consider: “What was in place if we had been successful? I don’t know if anyone had thought that far ahead.” When reminiscing about their time with Team America, the recurring theme players discussed was ambition. They praised a far-out concept, but admitted that the lack of financial backing and naivety of those in charge meant the team was always doomed to fail. Many still ask what other options the US had. “The interesting thing is, when you think about the Team America experiment in the context of any other country, most people - the Germans, British, Italians, French - would look at you and laugh, thinking, what would ever compel you to try something like that?” Durgan says. “But in context with what was happening at the time in the US, there is some logic in the effort to do it … Something needed to be done to maintain interest in the sport.” |