#593: John Polis, USSF press officer in 1989, joins the pod

Scuffed | U.S. soccer, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America

Adam Belz

Sports, Usmnt, Men's National Team, American Soccer, Us Soccer, Soccer, Mls, U17 National Team, U20 National Team, Youth National Teams, Yanks Abroad

4.8 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Polis was at the scene for Paul Caligiuri's shot heard round the world, he was also (for Umbro) the English language press liaison for the Brazilian national team (Romario, Bebeto, Dunga) in 1994. Polis joined Belz for a 75 minute conversation. He was prepared and he has a good memory and he brings a lot to the table, including a more relaxed perspective about the USMNT heading toward next summer than Belz has. Good medicine.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer.
0:15.4	Our guest today is going to be a real treat.
0:17.5	He was press officer for U.S. soccer from 1989 to 1993, and so was
0:22.3	in attendance at the qualifier in Trinidad, where Paul Caliguri scored from distance to send us to
0:28.1	the World Cup. He was press officer for the U.S. at the first ever Women's World Cup,
0:33.1	and he was press liaison for the Brazilian national team at the 1994 World Cup in his capacity as an employee of Umbro.
0:39.7	I think we'll have a lot to discuss John Polis.
0:43.3	Welcome to scuffed.
0:44.5	Adam, great to see you.
0:45.8	Thanks for asking.
0:47.1	Let's start back in 1989.
0:51.3	The U.S. team arrived at the airport in Trinidad and Tobago to 3,000 hostile fans. So two questions. First of all, how hostile were they? It was more friendly ribbing, you know, like we exited the plane outside of the plane and then walked down a stairwell.
1:16.2	And there was people at the various levels at this right by the tarmac.
1:22.8	And the chant was a very clear, no way USA.
1:29.0	No way USA.
1:31.2	And, you know, we had this young team of guys.
1:34.8	They were ready to strap it up right there and play them, you know.
1:38.7	We got on the bus and they're banging on the sides of the bus.
1:43.1	And, you know, I can remember Tony Miola getting up saying,
1:48.8	let's take these guys on right now, you know.
1:53.6	So, yeah, that was the start.
1:58.1	There was a lot that happened before we got there.
	...

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