Coach Turned 22 Unknowns Into 1994 World Cup Legends

When Bora Milutinović arrived in Mission Viejo, California in 1992, he found a muddy swamp where a soccer field should be. His solution? "We have a beach."

For months, players vying for spots on America's first World Cup team in decades ran endless miles along the Pacific Ocean. It looked like endurance training, but defender Alexi Lalas understood the real test: "I think Bora understood he could only get so much out of them as soccer players. But they can run hard. And they can run forever."

The 1994 World Cup would be America's first, hosted on home soil before professional soccer even existed here. The Serbian-born "Miracle Worker" who'd guided Mexico and Costa Rica to surprise World Cup runs faced an impossible task: build a team from scratch.

Where other coaches bullied and demanded, Bora asked questions. Captain John Harkes remembers him turning every question back before Harkes could finish asking. "Coach Bora was mysterious," said defender Paul Caligiuri. "He basically wanted you to figure it out and believe in yourself."

Without a professional league to sharpen their skills, Bora gave his players the world. Orphaned young and raised by travel himself, he understood its power. They played anyone, anywhere, sleeping in airports for chances to compete. "If you don't play against the best," Bora said, "you don't have a chance to grow."

The true measure of teaching reveals itself later. Bora's cryptic wisdom awakened something lasting in those men. Of the 22 players on that roster, 14 became coaches themselves—an extraordinary legacy captured in the new documentary "Summer of '94."

Why This Inspires

Bora saw beyond athletic ability to human potential. "Mr. Harkes, I need you to stand up and be a leader when you come home," he told his captain. The message landed: create something special for the World Cup and beyond.

"I'm standing here today because of Bora," said Lalas, "and what he did in terms of challenging me, but also having faith in me." Winger Cobi Jones saw him as a father figure. Eric Wynalda credits him simply: "Bora was the catalyst of me becoming a better version of myself."

That philosophy lives on through Yes, Coach!, a national initiative supported by U.S. Soccer Foundation providing free resources helping youth coaches become mentors, not just instructors. "He taught me how sports oftentimes parallels life," said Lalas, "and gave me the tools to do the things I've done later."

Bora didn't just build a soccer team that summer—he forged a movement that introduced soccer as a unifying force in America.