Date 19 November 1989 | Venue Hasely Crawford Stadium | |
Event 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification - North, Central American and Caribbean zone - final round Referee Juan Carlos Loustau (Argentina) Location Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago | ||
The Shot heard 'round the world is a term used in reference to one of the most brilliant goals in the USA's soccer history, which made the national team qualify to the 1990 FIFA World Cup after 40 years of being unable to qualify to the World Cup. This fact happened in the qualification game between United States and Trinidad and Tobago on November 19, 1989 in Port of Spain.
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The American team hadn't qualified to a FIFA World Cup since 1950, and the Americans (having being elected by FIFA in 1988 to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup) wanted to give a good impression to the world of soccer qualifying to the 1990 World Cup.
Before the game
The United States was one of the 5 nations competing in the final round of CONCACAF's qualifiers for 2 spots to the World Cup in Italy, the other involved nations being Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Trinidad-Tobago. Mexico was disqualified due to a scandal related with the age adulteration for a youth tournament, known as los cachirules. In that time, the American team was formed mainly by college and semiprofessional players.
They started by losing 1-0 to Costa Rica, then they got revenge by beating Costa Rica 1-0, tied 1-1 against Trinidad and Tobago, won 2-1 against Guatemala and won 1-0 against El Salvador. After 2 scoreless draws against Guatemala and El Salvador, the situation of the group was as follows:
The United States needed to win in order to qualify to the World Cup because a loss or a draw would make Trinidad and Tobago qualify. Costa Rica had already qualified for the World Cup.
The game
Was played on November 19, 1989 in the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. The stadium was painted red, as an homage to Soca warriors.
In the first minutes, John Harkes tried unsuccessfully to score. Trinidad and Tobago's Elliot Allen tried twice, unsuccessfully. At 30', Bruce Murray passed the ball to Paul Caligiuri, who dodged a rival defender and with a left-footed shot scored 1-0 for the United States. Trinidadian goalkeeper Michael Maurice waited for the ball practically standing on the goal-line, but he couldn't see it, arguing that the sun had blinded him.
In the second half, the Trinidadian team went into attack in order to get a draw, but their efforts were in vain, because American Goalkeeper Tony Meola was able to stop Trinidad and Tobago's options. After the final whistle, the USA celebrated the victory while Trinidad and Tobago was left in consternation.
After the game
After game, the group results were as follows:
Due to the political situation of El Salvador and to the fact that El Salvador and Guatemala had no chances to qualify to the World Cup, the matches afterwards between El Salvador and Guatemala were cancelled.
The American press, considering the result, treated Caliguri's goal as "the shot heard 'round the world".
After 40 years of absences from the World Cup, the American team qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup but its participation in that World Cup was brief. It lost 5-1 against Czechoslovakia, lost 1-0 against host Italy, and lost 2-1 against Austria.
Trinidad and Tobago suffered a protracted crisis of confidence until their own World Cup dream finally came true in 2005, beating Bahrain in an inter-continental play-off, which made Soca warriors qualify to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Yorke and Latapy (survivors of the qualifying campaign of 1989) were part of that Trinidadian team, which in that World Cup draw against Sweden and lost against England and Paraguay, being eliminated in the first round.