The top 10 most important U.S. men’s team goals of all time

If you’re relatively new to soccer, you might be surprised to learn that the U.S. men’s national team has scored a lot of goals in its history.

Yes, the American men’s squad has long been cast (and cast itself) as a fighting underdog. But it has been playing official games since 1885, not just the 1990s. So picking 10 memorable goals from the program’s history isn’t as easy as you might think.

Here are my choices.

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Ghana was the Americans’ villain at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, beating them in the former’s group stage and the latter’s round of 16. They met for a third straight tournament in Brazil, and in the 86th minute, a then-21-year-old centerback rose up to head in a corner kick and deliver a long-awaited win.

Brooks’ stunned reaction was as memorable as the goal itself. He put his hands to his head as he ran across the field in disbelief, then sank to the turf as his teammates surrounded him.

The win produced one of the better soccer headlines in Inquirer history, too: “Johnny Futbol,” a riff on the nickname of then-viral quarterback Johnny Manziel.

This might be the most underappreciated game in modern U.S. men’s soccer history. The summer before the 2010 World Cup, the Americans traveled to South Africa to play in FIFA’s Confederations Cup, a now-defunct tournament of continental champions that served as a test event for World Cup venues.

After narrowly escaping the group stage to reach the semifinals, the U.S. faced a Spain team that was the sport’s dynasty of the time. The reigning European champions were riding a 35-game unbeaten streak, including a 15-game winning streak going into this contest. A year later, this team with Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Iker Casillas, and David Villa — just to name a few — would win the nation’s first World Cup.

But on this day, they were tripped up. Jozy Altidore scored in the 27th minute, Clint Dempsey scored in the 74th, and despite an 86th-minute red card to Michael Bradley, the U.S. held on for the upset win, 2-0.

The most famous score line in American soccer is “dos a cero”: a 2-0 lead over perennial rival Mexico in a big game. It was launched on a frigid February night in Columbus, Ohio, when U.S. Soccer decided to finally make a home-field advantage instead of hosting thousands of El Tri fans at an NFL stadium.

Josh Wolff opened the scoring on a breakaway in the 47th, then set up Stewart in the 87th for a beautiful clincher that sent the crowd into a frenzy.

It was one of many big-time plays by Stewart, the future sporting director for the Union and the U.S. Soccer Federation. And at the time, it was a rare moment when American men’s soccer broke into mainstream sports headlines.

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It all felt like a weird dream. The United States’ opening game of the 2002 World Cup in South Korea was a 5 a.m. kickoff here, so a high-school-age future Inquirer reporter slept on the couch by the basement TV to wake up just in time.

And you couldn’t have been late. Facing superstars including Luis Figo and Rui Costa, John O’Brien scored just three minutes after kickoff. Jorge Costa then committed an own goal in the 29th and Brian McBride made it 3-0 in the 36th. Then Beto cut the lead to 3-1 in the 39th.

If the roller coaster went up in the first half, it went flying down in the second. When Jeff Agoos scored a wild own goal in the 71st, it was time to panic. But the U.S. held on to shock the then-No. 5 team in the world, and the world as a whole.

This is a personal favorite, but it is for a lot of fans. The U.S. came from behind to win this game 2-1, with Feilhaber scoring an electric winner: a 20-yard smash off a cleared corner kick.

Even the Mexico fans at sold-out Soldier Field in Chicago cheered for it. Max Bretos’ “Benny with his jets!” call for the old Fox Soccer Channel and Pablo Ramírez’s classic “Golazo-azo-azo-azo!” for Univision are still popular today.

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The U.S. was back at the World Cup after missing 2018, and the classic pressure of the world’s biggest stage was heaving on the team’s shoulders. After dramatic ties against Wales and England, the group stage finale was just about a must-win — with the added spectacle of the U.S.-Iran political rivalry.

In the 38th minute, the Americans’ biggest star delivered the biggest play of his life in a 1-0 victory. The ball went from Tyler Adams to Weston McKennie to Sergiño Dest, who headed it down toward Pulisic’s … well, in hockey they’d call it the lower body.

The Hershey native put the ball in the net, then collapsed to the turf with what was officially called a pelvic contusion. It was an all-time sacrifice to make an all-time moment for himself, his team, and his country.

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When the U.S. hosted the 1994 men’s World Cup, much of the world saw the home team as a novelty. But the Americans had qualified for the previous tournament in 1990. Now they aimed to show they could genuinely play the world’s game.

This goal helped prove it. Tab Ramos curved a pass through Colombia’s defense, Stewart ran on to it, and he slipped a shot past goalkeeper Andrés Escobar.

It was the only open-play goal the U.S. scored in the tournament. The other tallies were an Escobar own goal in that same game and an Eric Wynalda free kick against Switzerland. But the memory would last a lifetime.

Arguably no single play in U.S. men’s history has gotten more attention, and for good reason. A must-win group stage finale had come down to the final seconds when goalkeeper Tim Howard grabbed Rafik Saifi’s header and launched a counterattack with a long throw.

Donovan corralled the ball and raced down the right side of midfield. Jozy Altidore was out wider, and Donovan fed him the ball. Altidore hit a low centering pass for Clint Dempsey, whose chance was denied by future Union goalkeeper Raïs M’Bolhi. But Donovan had kept running, and when M’Boli gave up a big rebound, Donovan cashed it in for a 1-0 victory.

“Go, go, USA!” Ian Darke shouted on ESPN, words that would define his career for American viewers. On Spanish-language radio, Hall of Fame broadcaster Andrés Cantor nearly fainted live on air from the adrenaline rush. Their calls still get played all the time, and that won’t stop soon.

The real roots of American soccer history were planted long before color television — in fact, before the World Cup was on live TV at all. In 1930, the U.S. reached the semifinals at the first World Cup contested. Four years later, it went out in the first round.

The Americans’ next World Cup appearance would come in 1950 in Brazil. After opening with a 3-1 loss to Spain, the U.S. pulled off what still stands as one of soccer’s all-time upsets. Philadelphia native Walter Bahr set up Gaetjens for the lone goal, and at the final whistle the Belo Horizonte crowd carried the U.S. players off the field.

The story of the game became a book in 1996 and a movie, The Game of Their Lives, in 2010.

That same year, Bahr recounted every inch of the play in an interview with The Inquirer. And in all the years since, England has still never beaten its former colony at a men’s or women’s World Cup.

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Would all that has come since happened if not for American soccer’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”?

If we’re honest, maybe it would have. The U.S. had already been awarded hosting the 1994 World Cup by the time the men’s team went to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad; and there have been seven World Cups since the biggest sports spectacle of all came to these shores. The eighth will bring the tournament back here in 2026.

But it sure helped that Caligiuri’s big swing of his left foot sent the American men to Italy in 1990 and ended a 40-year World Cup drought.

For all that the NASL did in its 1970s heyday, ask anyone who knows when the modern era of American soccer started and you’ll get one answer. It was Nov. 19, 1989, in the 30th minute of a sun-splashed afternoon in Port-of-Spain.

“No other home run, no other slam dunk, no ace in tennis, no Miracle on Ice, changed a game as much,” Caligiuri said in 2013 to The Inquirer’s Mike Jensen, who covered the game in person. “Can you name one?”

The answer remains no.

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