On the Pitch
On the Pitch
26 USMNT Moments, Past to Present: U.S. Soccer’s Original Orange County Base Camp
The U.S. Men’s National Team sets up a residency training camp in Mission Viejo, California ahead of 1994 FIFA World Cup
This is 26 USMNT Moments: Past to Present, a U.S. Soccer content series that covers 26 defining moments in U.S. Men's National Team history. From inspired victories to stunning goals, and the stars and hidden heroes who made them possible, each chapter reminds us that our dreams on the pitch are worth chasing. Together, they’ve built toward the biggest moment yet: the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
The U.S. Men’s National Team will hold its base camp for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif. When the U.S. team opens training on June 8 at the OC Great Park, it will mark a full circle moment for U.S. Soccer. Thirty-three years ago and just 11 miles away south, a very special group of players and staff came together for a very special time in the history of U.S. Soccer.
In 1993-1994, when it was decided that the best way for the U.S. Men’s National Team to prepare for the upcoming World Cup on home soil was to sign the players to professional contracts and put them into a residency camp situation, the United States Soccer Federation didn’t have a palatial headquarters and training center as it does now. Far from it.
The team needed a place they could train, live and grow together, on and off the field.
Keep in mind, no host country had ever failed to advance out of the group stage of a World Cup.
The United States didn’t want to become the first.
"It had never been a question for previous hosts if they'd get out of their group, but it was a real question for us," defender Alexi Lalas told the BBC in 2022. "Internally and externally, that was the goal - do that and the rest is gravy."
Alexi Lalas at training in Mission Viejo, Calif.
To accomplish that mission, U.S. Soccer needed to devise a way to bring players from all over the world together and get them up to speed on the rigors and intensity of international football.
Oh, and it needed a manager.
The coach that then-U.S. Soccer President Alan Rothenberg hired, Bora Milutinovic had an impressive resume that included leading Mexico the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup and Costa Rica to the Round of 16 in 1990.
He knew the region, having played and coached in Mexico for years. He was also familiar with the United States, which failed to win a point in the 1990 tournament in Italy while playing a team of young pros and some players whose highest level had been college soccer. The U.S. scored two goals and gave up eight in a group that also included Italy, Czechoslovakia and Austria.
Milutinovic, a native of Serbia, but a true citizen of the world, was hired by the USSF three years before the tournament.
The players invited to come to residency training camp, a mixture of domestic and European pros, but most without a ton of international or high-level club experience, were signed to U.S. Soccer Federation contracts. There were even a few players who were coming almost directly form college soccer, including Claudio Reyna from the University of Virginia.
The players and staff made their homes in and around Mission Viejo, Calif., in south Orange County, just a short drive down the 5 freeway from the OC Great Park, where a training center was built by the city. At the time, it was the lap of luxury. In fact, the main building (well, only building), which featured a locker room, a meeting room and a few offices, could be fit 52 times into the main building at the new Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center outside of Atlanta. The team had 2.5 fields to train on (the new NTC has 17). But at the time, it was just what the team needed.
Players moved in, the younger players lived together, the guys who were married with kids got larger homes, and the training commenced, sometimes twice a day. The office for the communications team was in a strip mall across the street. The players went on runs by the ocean and spent time in the glittering towns of Dana Point and Laguna Beach. They all knew they were training for something huge, but it was done in relative obscurity in the calmness of the Southern California suburbs. In that sense, Mission Viejo served as more than a training facility – it was a place to call home and a proving ground.
Most of the players in residency then are now well known: Jones, Lalas, Tony Meola, Marcelo Balboa, Brad Friedel, Claudio Reyna, and Paul Caligiuri, to name a few. Meola, Caligiuri and Balboa were a few of the small group who also played on that 1990 World Cup team.
"A lot of us had never been on the books of a club before, so our careers were completely backwards," Lalas told the BBC. "Bora recognized he needed to blood us and use this to our advantage, this strange silver lining that he'd found.”
After forming the player pool he wanted to move forward with, Milutinovic put together a 90-match schedule of international matches. Yes, 90 matches, to prepare the team for World Cup crucible.
The U.S. played Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, North Korea, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia … and even a few professional club teams.With those included, the total was well over 100 matches in those three-and-a-half years leading into the World Cup.
The matches were held at venues that ranged from local high schools and junior colleges to massive American football venues and major stadiums across the world.
"It was important to play so many games against different countries to learn what we needed to do and how we needed to do it,” Milutinovic was quoted in Chris Evans’ book, How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football's Top Managers. “You can learn a lot more from playing against teams like this than teaching the players for many hours.”
The U.S. learned how to play a defensive style to take advantage of its athleticism on counterattacks.
The USMNT's Eric Wynalda pulled back by Colombia's Leonel Alvarez during the USMNT-Colombia match in the 1994 FIFA World Cup (Photo Credit: Shaun Botterill/Allsport)
The FIFA Final Draw placed the USA into Group A with Switzerland, Colombia and Romania for the World Cup, a tough group, especially for a World Cup host
Milutinovic’s plan to play not to lose proved to be a winning choice. The U.S. drew with Switzerland, 1-1. It pulled off what was a massive upset at the time over pre-tournament favorite Colombia 2-1 as Earnie Stewart scored the game winner to ensure the USA advanced from its group for just the second time and first time in 64 years. It ended that group stage with a tight 1-0 loss to a very talented Romania side.
In the Round of 16, the U.S. fell to eventual champion Brazil 1-0 on the Fourth of July at Stanford Stadium, holding the score to 0-0 until the 72nd minute when the legendary Bebeto put home the game’s lone goal.
But the job had been done. Bora and the players advanced out of the group and pushed one of the world’s greatest teams to the brink, and in the process, made the United States proud.
“Everything stopped, you take a breath and realize you played a role in changing the way people look at the game,” Lalas told the BBC. “We certainly felt pride that we'd left something and we'd lived up to some of the expectations.”
Doug Roberson is the owner and reporter for Soccer with Doug, a website focused on professional soccer in Atlanta. Doug has covered the sport in the city for the past 17 years. He also has the Soccer with Doug podcast.
