World Cup USA 1994 Opening Ceremony revisited

When the global football governing body decided to award the organization of the 1994 tournament to the United States, beating Brazil and Honduras for the host role, it was more than antagonistic. The U.S. was, and still is by certain opinions, regarded as not a “suitable” footballing nation, a country without a top-level league. Many issues and debates were raised when it was granted the chance to host the holy grail of football.

Adding to that, historical circumstances like Russia performing first time as Russia and not the Soviet Union, and the reigning champions playing as a unified German team following West Germany’s 1990 acclaim, there was plenty of novelty in this tournament from the start.

In general, the whole year 1994 was unconventional, least to say. First, at the beginning of the year, the Tonya Harding Olympic incident, followed by the OJ Simpson double murder charge, the baseball World Series didn’t even happen, while Michael Jordan was getting batting stats instead of ppg, playing in the minor baseball leagues.

The Opening Ceremony

The chaotic opening ceremony did not come as a surprise, what with everything happening in the country.

It’s challenging to detract from the quotidian melancholy of a World Cup opening ceremony. Still, the celebrities enrolled for the tournament’s great kick-off at Chicago’s Soldier Field managed to do it.

Oprah Winfrey

The talking host of the ceremony was Oprah Winfrey, who, even then, was already an established self-made media mogul. It was almost logical to see her in that role because her fame already went beyond the U.S market, and she was a recognizable face worldwide.

Immediately after welcoming a worldwide television audience of 750 million viewers and announcing Diana Ross’s performance Oprah Winfrey tumbled off a platform, and it seemed she twisted her ankle due to the fall.

Diana Ross

The Supremes singer made her grand entrance by running down the center of the pitch while singing “I’m Coming Out” to the packed stadium. But then it all went a bit wrong.

When she got to the other end of the pitch, Ross was supposed to take a penalty kick with the goal spliting as part of a pre-orchestrated stunt. However, she hilariously missed instead, sending the ball flying to the left, missing the goal completely - but the goal still came apart anyway.

Loud moans and boos echoed around the stadium as Ross messed up her big moment.

The Epilog

It started with a missed penalty and ended with Baggio missing the decisive penalty for Italy in the final.

The outcome for U.S. Soccer? Well, it is beyond question that the tournament forever changed the game’s face in the States. In 1996, MLS was announced with ten initial teams pitched. This was the kickstart soccer needed in America. It is just crazy that they had the World Cup, of all things, as their trigger.