In honor of the 25th anniversary of Paul Caligiuri’s historic goal that clinched the United States’ berth in the 1990 World Cup, MLSsoccer.com decided to take a look at where all the US players on the field that day are now.
Tony Meola (GK) - A veteran of three World Cups (1990, 1994, 2002) and later an MLS Cup champion with Kansas City in 2000, Meola has remained very much in the soccer spotlight over the past quarter century. He was recently a candidate for the Philadelphia Union’s coaching position, and he has worked with Tab Ramos and the US U-20 national team. He also works with fellow USMNT legend John Harkes as co-host of the Sirius XM radio show Counter Attack.
John Doyle (RB) - A San Jose native who spent the final five seasons of his playing career with the San Jose Clash/Earthquakes, Doyle has served as the ‘Quakes general manager since 2007. He helped build the roster that reached the Eastern Conference Championship in 2010 and then won the Supporters’ Shield in 2012, but big changes are brewing for 2015 in the form of returning Quakes head coach Dominic Kinnear and a brand new soccer-specific stadium, the first in club history.
Steve Trittschuh (CB): – An underrated American soccer pioneer who in 1990 became a strikingly rare foreign player on the roster for Czech powerhouse Sparta Prague, Trittschuh eventually spent six seasons in MLS before retiring in 2001. After playing with the Colorado Rapids from 1996-99, he later returned to the area to become an assistant with the club, and he currently serves as the head coach of the expansion Colorado Springs Switchbacks in USL PRO.
Mike Windischmann (CB) – A native of New York whose playing career included appearances in the 1990 World Cup and later the 1992 Futsal World Cup, Windischmann has stayed put in the Big Apple. He’s currently a teacher and soccer coach at the Susan B. Anthony School in Hollis, Queens.
Brian Bliss (LB): – He played in the 1990 World Cup but missed a follow-up chance in 1994 after suffering a knee injury. After retiring in 1999, he became best-known in modern soccer circles as the technical director who helped build the Columbus Crew rosters that won two MLS Supporters’ Shields and the 2008 MLS Cup. Bliss moved to Chicago in 2013 to work with Frank Yallop as the Fire’s technical director.
Paul Krumpe (RM) – A Southern California native who starred at UCLA before playing in the 1990 World Cup and later retiring in 1991, Krumpe has been the head coach at Loyola Marymount University since 1998. The Lions won their first outright West Coast Conference title in 2013. Krumpe’s alums include MLS regulars Bobby Burling and Rafael Baca.
Tab Ramos (CM) – One of the most celebrated players in American soccer history and a member of the 1990, 1994 and 1998 World Cup teams, Ramos played for the MetroStars from 1996-2002 and is now in charge of shaping the next generation of US talent. Last year he signed a four-year deal to stay on as the head coach of the U.S. U-20 men’s national team and also serve as the USSF’s youth technical director. He also served as an assistant to the US national team under Jurgen Klinsmann during the World Cup this summer.
John Harkes (CM) – One of the heroes of the 1990 and 1994 World Cup teams, Harkes is still part of the American soccer fabric from behind the microphone. He teams with Meola on their Sirius XM radio show and has also recently worked as a color analyst covering D.C. United, and he was part of the ESPN broadcast team that covered the US team at the 2010 World Cup. He also coaches youth soccer, and his son, Ian, is a promising young player at Wake Forest and in the D.C. United and US youth systems.
Paul Caligiuri (LM) – A Southern California native who played nearly 140 games for the LA Galaxy during the early days of MLS, Caligiuri went on to spend six years as a coach with Cal Poly Pomona between 2002-08. In June, he was named the technical director of the California Football Academy, a youth soccer organization in Orange County.
Bruce Murray (F) – Another player from the 1990 team whose career ended long before the introduction of MLS, Murray is in rare company with Brian McBride, Clint Mathis and John O’Brien as the only US players to record a goal and an assist in the same World Cup. After a brief stint as an assistant coach at Harvard in the mid-aughts, Murray now serves as the youth soccer coach with the Bethesda Soccer Club in his native Maryland.
Peter Vermes (F) – One of the most successful head coaches in MLS over the past five years, Vermes is one the architects of a recent soccer rebirth in Kansas City. He led Sporting KC to their second MLS Cup in club history in 2013 – he played defender when they won the first in 2000 - and became the only figure in MLS history to win a league title as both a player and head coach with the same organization. SKC qualified for the postseason for the fourth straight time this year.
John Stollmeyer (RM) – The only non-starter who saw action in the game in Port-of-Spain, Stollmeyer went on to make the 1990 World Cup team before he retired shortly thereafter. Although he dabbled in coaching with Notre Dame, he now serves as a vice president in the Indianapolis office of financial advisory giant Raymond James.
Bob Gansler (HC) – Widely considered one of the most successful coaches in American soccer history, Gansler left his post with the US team in 1991 and eventually thrived in MLS. He became one of just three coaches in league history to win the MLS Cup, the Supporters’ Shield and the US Open Cup – Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid are the others – and he’s still working in the game today, even in his early 70s. In 2013, he began working with US Soccer running a licensing course for new coaches, and he has also worked with the NSCAA. He lives in Milwaukee.
