The Nightmare in Torrance

On This Day in 1985, Costa Rica's 1-0 Victory Derailed US Soccer's World Cup Dreams

After thirty-five years without a World Cup appearance, the United States Men's National Team entered May 1985 with renewed optimism. Consecutive victories over Trinidad and Tobago had positioned the Americans atop their second-round qualifying group, and they needed just one more positive result to advance to the final round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

The qualifying campaign had started promisingly. On May 15, the Americans came from behind at Busch Stadium in St. Louis to defeat Trinidad and Tobago 2-1 before 15,823 fans. Mark Peterson scored a dramatic 88th-minute winner after Chico Borja had equalized an early Trinidad goal. Four days later, in Torrance, California, Paul Caligiuri's 15th-minute header secured a 1-0 victory in the second leg, completing a sweep of the Caribbean nation.

These victories put the U.S. in control of its qualifying group with four points from two matches. With a subsequent 1-1 draw against Costa Rica in San Jose on May 26, where John Kerr's 44th-minute goal canceled out Oscar Ramirez's opener just a minute earlier, the Americans needed only a tie in the return leg to advance to the final round against Honduras and Canada.

The scene shifted to Murdock Stadium at El Camino College in Torrance, California, for the decisive qualifier on May 31. Coach Alkis Panagoulias fielded a young lineup that included college players like Caligiuri (UCLA), Kerr (Duke), and 19-year-old Mike Windischmann (Adelphi). The team featured Arnie Mausser in goal, Gregg Thompson, Dan Canter, Kevin Crow, and Windischmann in defense, Caligiuri, Perry Van Der Beck, Rick Davis, and Mike Fox in midfield, and Kerr and Hugo Perez up front.

The Americans entered the match with confidence, needing only a draw to advance, while Costa Rica required a victory. However, the venue selection compromised what should have been a home-field advantage. Of the 11,800 fans in attendance, half supported Costa Rica. The half-time show even featured Costa Rican folk dancers.

"I felt like I was in San Jose, Costa Rica," midfielder Jeff Lewis recalled.

Despite the partisan crowd, the U.S. started strongly, with Perez forcing Costa Rican goalkeeper Alejandro Gonzalez into a diving save just 30 seconds into the match. The Americans controlled possession and created several quality chances in the opening half-hour. However, in the 35th minute, disaster struck. Jorge Chevez sent a free kick into the American penalty area. Mausser came out to punch the ball away but failed to clear it effectively. The ball fell to a Costa Rican player who headed it to Evaristo Coronado, positioned just five feet from goal. Coronado knocked it into the unguarded net, giving Costa Rica a 1-0 lead against the run of play.

"I came out of my goal to punch the ball away, but did not clear the ball very well and Costa Rica scored," Mausser would later recount, calling it perhaps his greatest professional regret.

The Americans redoubled their efforts, pushing forward in waves as Canter and Thompson raided down the flanks. In the 73rd minute, they thought they had equalized when Canter drilled a shot that appeared to find the net. Referee John Meachin initially awarded the goal, prompting American celebrations. However, after consulting with linesman Robert Allen, he correctly ruled that the ball had hit the side netting rather than entering the goal.

The Americans could not find the equalizer despite outshooting Costa Rica 13-8 and earning six corner kicks to Costa Rica's none. When the final whistle blew, the score remained 1-0 to Costa Rica.

Coach Panagoulias was despondent: "God is not an American," he declared. "I am convinced of it now. The way we went out hurts. Although the team was still not ready, we played our best game so far. I have nothing but compliments for the players."

The defeat had profound personal and professional consequences. For Davis, then 27 and the face of American soccer, the loss was almost too much to bear.

"It was still that big of a hurt that I seriously considered retiring right after that game," he later revealed. "It was that... emotionally crushing. There's just not anything that would cheer me up. I remember that I was not me. I didn't want to talk to people afterwards. I didn't want to be around people."

For Davis and his generation of American players, the defeat represented more than just elimination from the 1986 World Cup qualifying campaign. It symbolized a missed opportunity that they would never get again.

"It wasn't just one game," Davis explained years later. "It was as if this game represented the lost opportunity of my entire generation of players. This was it. There wasn't going to be an opportunity down the road. It was gone."

Many players never represented the United States in a meaningful international match again. Panagoulias was dismissed less than a month later. Several careers were permanently altered — Davis never played professional outdoor soccer again, though he continued indoors until 1990.

After the match, a frustrated Thompson approached Panagoulias in the locker room and asked, "When are we ever going to play a home game?" The coach's blunt response: "Never."

Yet from this crushing defeat emerged valuable lessons that would transform American soccer. The U.S. Soccer Federation began to professionalize its operations. In California, four clubs formed the A-League the following year, establishing a foundation for outdoor professional soccer's rebirth. The federation created formal distinctions between youth, amateur and professional programs, setting the stage for the current soccer pyramid.

Four years later, the U.S. would qualify for the 1990 World Cup thanks mainly to Caligiuri, one of the few players from the 1985 squad to get another chance, who scored "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" against Trinidad and Tobago in 1989. That victory ended a 40-year World Cup drought and began an era of American soccer, including hosting the 1994 World Cup and establishing Major League Soccer in 1996.

Since that fateful night in Torrance, the United States has qualified for seven consecutive World Cups, demonstrating how far the program has come. Yet for the players who walked off the field on May 31, 1985, the memories of what might have been remain poignant reminders of a generation that, in Davis's words, "missed the boat."

As USSF President Sunil Gulati would later reflect, "In every way we are more professional now. Whether that's in the number of coaches we have, whether that's in where we play our games, whether that's in the support staff, whether it's the level of hotels we stay at, or whether it's how players and teams prepare... It's just a very different world."

That very different world was built on the hard lessons learned from the heartbreak of May 31, 1985 — a date that marks both an end and a beginning in American soccer history.