The United States men’s national team shocked the world and laid the foundation for the soccer future when Paul Caligiuri hit the ‘shot heard round the world’ in the U.S.’ 1-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago to earn a berth at the 1990 FIFA World Cup on this day in soccer history in 1989.

It was the first time in 40 years that the Red, White and Blue had booked a ticket to the quadrennial event and was accomplished on long odds.  The U.S. was compromised of mainly college and semi-professionals, with Caligiuri the only full time pro playing with SV Meppen, and needed a win from the final match after drawing El Salvador at home two weeks earlier.  And to make the tough more difficult the U.S. had not won an away qualifier in 21 years.

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Trinidad and Tobago only needed to come away from the match with a draw to advance to their first FIFA World Cup final.  And the Soca Warriors boasted one of their most talented sides ever with had one of their best sides in history with Russell Latapy and Dwight Yorke leading the attack.

The U.S. entered the match on a three game goal scoring drought and so were not full of confidence.  Caligiuri was a late addition by head coach Bob Gansler having only recently returned from a broken foot but it turned out to be a great managerial move.

Thirty minutes into the match, Caligiuri pushed into the attack and received a square ball from Tab Ramos.  The ball took a poor bounce on the choppy pitch and after turning down an opportunity to play back to Ramos or keep possession the California native beat one man and sent a high arching left footed shot into the goal from 30 yards out.  The T&T keeper was caught off guard and in trying to follow the path of the shot claims he lost the ball in the sun which allowed it to sail over his head and into the goal.  Caligiuri earned 110 caps during his career with the national team but only scored 5 goals in those games.

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"It was the single most important game we ever won,” Paul Calgiuri told FIFA.com.  “It proved to the rest of the world we can play and we can qualify. We knew what was on the line for the future of soccer in the United States."

The U.S defense held off the home side attack for the remainder of the game and in the process changed the history of probably both countries soccer programs.

The U.S. has gone on to play in every FIFA World Cup finals since 1990 and are now the dominant team in the CONCACAF region. 

"It wasn't like it is today,” University of Virginia and U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola said. “We had no pro league and no money and very little organization. Looking back it's amazing that we achieved what we did. We had guys playing in semi-pro leagues and Sunday leagues just trying to keep fit, and in the end we did it. Everything the US has achieved since then is based on that win."

Trinidad and Tobago has struggled over the years but finally made their first FIFA World Cup when the qualified for Germany 2006.  Fittingly Yorke and Latapy were both a part of the team that successfully qualified for that tournament.  While merely a consolation prize, T&T can take some satisfaction after winning a tribute match 4-1 against the U.S. in 2006 with players from the epic 1989 match returning to Port of Spain for the match.

THE MATCH
19 November 1989, National Stadium, Port of Spain

Trinidad and Tobago 0-1 USA
Scorers: Paul Caligiuri

USA: Meola, Windischmann, Doyle, Trittschuh, Krumpe, Caligiuri, Bliss, Harkes, Ramos, Vermes, Murray.

Trinidad and Tobago: Maurice, Morris, Williams, Francis, Faustin, Latapy, Lewis, Allen, Jones, Yorke, Jamerson.

Soccer Birthdays

1965 – Laurent Blanc, French footballer
1976 – Stylianos Venetidis, Greek football player
1979 – Leam Richardson, English football player
1985 – Chris Eagles, English footballer
1986 – Milan Smiljanić, Serbian footballer

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