Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Trip Down T&T Memory Lane

It's inevitable that every time we come to Trinidad, the conversation at some point shifts to Paul Caliguiri's "shot heard round the world" that catapulted the U.S. into the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their first trip to the finals in 40 years. The goal is widely regarded as the 'big bang' moment of the modern era of soccer in the United States. Turns out the goal was a huge deal for the Trinis as well. What isn't often spoken of is that T&T needed only one point from that game to reach the World Cup, and that goal served as a major set back to the program here. "We had fans who refused to watch football for years after that," Stern John told us. Reporters here can still tell you the lineups and describe in detail events of that game. Moral to the story, Caliguiri's goal still lives on in the hearts and minds of many.

Fast forward to 2005, and you have memories of a different sort. Arriving in the midst of the craziness that is Carnivale, discovering U.S. Soccer superfan Drew Carey, and a pair of Eddie's scoring goals to set the tone for the rest of the final round qualifying campaign.

Fortunately, you can re-live all these memories and more in one place. Check out the folder marked 'Trinidad & Tobago' from the archived files of ussoccer.com's all_access

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