30 Years After Hosting Its First World Cup, What’s Changed In US Soccer? | OneFootball

Italy, France, Brazil, Mexico, Germany. What do all of these nations have in common? They’re the only countries to have hosted multiple editions of the FIFA World Cup.

The United States will join that illustrious group in the summer of 2026 when they co-host the upcoming World Cup alongside North American counterparts Canada and Mexico. The USA’s first experience hosting a World Cup came in 1994, when they returned to the biggest tournament in the world after a 44-year hiatus. Three decades later, what’s changed the most in US Soccer?

For one, the quality of the domestic league has changed… a lot. The first sanctioned soccer league to enjoy mainstream success at the national level was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which ran between 1968 and 1984 and attracted a wide range of superstars like Pelé, Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer, before eventually fizzling out.

It took 12 years for the American soccer authorities to find a suitable replacement in Major League Soccer (MLS), with the USA being given the World Cup hosting privileges by FIFA in 1988 on the condition of establishing a Division 1 professional soccer league, with MLS being selected and eventually kicking off in 1996.

In the decade in between, American soccer was an untamed, rugged frontier, with teams struggling to stay afloat and churn out a profitable business.

“You’d play in a team for a year or two, and then the league or club would fold,” ex-USMNT international Janusz Michallik said in an interview with RG.

“It was all over the place…you didn’t know where the next check was coming from, or if it was coming at all. In those days, if you got a check from your team, you’d go straight to the bank and cash it…if you waited a few days, you might come up empty-handed.

“With the exception of MISL, there wasn’t a proper soccer league like MLS or NASL. You were bouncing around from one league to another. I played in a lot more leagues than I should have.”

Another major change is the complexion of the national team. Nowadays, players spend the majority of their time with their club team, only to jet off for two-week periods for a few months each year. Back then, however, there were no international breaks, and players would have to choose between representing their club and nation.

Between the day that he made his USMNT debut on May 5, 1991, and the day that he made his final appearance on December 11, 1994, Michallik made a whopping 44 caps for the United States.

In contrast, Josh Sargent has made just 27 appearances since making his debut in 2018, whilst Miles Robinson has made just 31 appearances since debuting in 2019.

Nowadays, players are encouraged to leave the United States and test their skills in Europe’s biggest clubs. From Christian Pulisic (Milan) to Weston McKennie (Juventus) to Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Dortmund), the Stars and Stripes national team is composed of a wide range of players who represent the UEFA Champions League’s elite.

However, back then, the United States Men’s National Team was, for all intents and purposes, a club team. The players gathered around the training base in Mission Viejo, California, practicing every day to gear up for the World Cup, and the only two players who did leave to join another club were excommunicated from the national team altogether.

When Michallik had the chance to join Southampton ahead of the inaugural Premier League season, national team manager Bora Miluntović gave him an ultimatum: if he made the move to England, he’d never play for the USA again.

Michallik decided to reject the move and continue representing the national team…and yet, less than two years later, he was one of the final players to be cut from their 1994 FIFA World Cup squad, eventually retiring at the end of the year.

However, perhaps no change in the past three decades has been more evident than transportation and technology.

Nowadays, you can easily hop on a plane and go on a scouting mission halfway across the world, and you can also utilize data platforms like Wyscout and InStat to peruse hours of video footage of a certain player and analyze his underlying metrics, strengths and weaknesses.

“Poland would have had no way of watching me play, you couldn’t find these games on the internet or television,” says Michallik.

“Back then, you couldn’t easily take a flight across the ocean or find tapes of indoor soccer games. It wasn’t really a choice for me to play for the U.S. or Poland. The US Men’s National Team chose me, that’s how I see it.”