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American Fiasco

Episode 2: Steve

American Fiasco

WNYC Studios

Sports, Soccer, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.85.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Meet Steve Sampson: the all-American regular guy who was plucked from obscurity to become interim head coach of the national squad. From living on a couch to leading the U.S. into battle, how an unlikely placeholder coach with no international experience proved his mettle by crushing the team’s longtime rival.

Transcript

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0:00.0

It's July 1994. Two men are lounging by a hotel swimming pool in Orange County, California.

0:11.1

They're both part of the U.S. men's national soccer team, but it's spent weeks being

0:15.1

cheered on by the whole country competing in the biggest tournament on the planet, the

0:19.9

World Cup. After a respectable showing, they've been eliminated by the mighty Brazil,

0:26.5

and now here they were by the pool a bit dazed because it was all over.

0:33.5

We were all wondering where does our future lie? What are we going to do?

0:37.3

That's Erick Winelder, the team star striker. The United States plucky showing at the 94

0:43.7

World Cup had changed how he and his teammates were now seen. Before the tournament, only

0:49.1

a few American soccer players had truly been able to earn a living as professionals, but

0:53.8

now American players were the world's hot new fad. Many were headed overseas, to Italy,

1:01.0

to England. Erick would be heading back to Germany to play with a club team and become

1:06.6

part of a culture that actually worships soccer players. But remember, there were two

1:11.9

guys at that pool, Erick Winelder and Steve Simpson.

1:17.4

You know, Steve was our assistant coach at the time, and I had known Steve through my

1:23.2

collegiate experience, and I liked the guy, and I was worried about him to a certain extent.

1:30.2

And he looked worried because, well, because I know what my story is, I've got to get

1:34.6

it up plain and go back to Europe, and I wanted to know what his aspirations were. And my

1:38.7

question to him was, what happens to you now? His answer was, I still love coaching,

1:45.5

and I wanted to do that. Steve Simpson wanted to be a pro coach, really. He had less than

1:51.0

two years' experience as an assistant on the national team. He never had coached or even

1:55.6

played at the professional level, but more than that, he was American. It was ludicrous.

2:03.9

This is American Fiasco.

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