World Cup pressure is always there.
It was there for the U.S. men’s national team in 1994, the first time America served as the host country.
And it is there for the 2026 team as the U.S. serves as one of the host nations for the 23rd World Cup that begins this week.
But the pressure was distinctly different for that 1994 team — for a lot of reasons.
Those players were fighting for their soccer lives and bent on building a foundation for a sport that was niche in this country.
The ’94 players were trying to avoid the ignominy of becoming the first host team in World Cup history to fail to get out of the group stage (South Africa in 2010 would become the first).
The pressure on the current U.S. side is more about the here and the now: to not merely advance out of Group D, but to finish high in the group (first?) and advance well into the knockout rounds.
The pressure on that 1994 team was more about the future of the sport in America.
“We looked at it much more as an opportunity,’’ former U.S. defender Alexi Lalas, one of the prominent members of that 1994 team and currently an analyst for Fox Sports, told The Post. “The summer of ’94 was a time to make a name for ourselves and to propel the sport forward in a positive way. I’m talking to you today because of the summer of ’94. I live the power of what it can do for an individual. There’s nothing better than a World Cup … except for a home World Cup.’’
Lalas called that 1994 World Cup “an absolutely seminal moment in the history of American soccer, as was 1999 with the women’s World Cup a few years later.’’
“That’s when things really, really changed for a lot of us,’’ Lalas said. “It was the first time we got any type of recognition, credibility, let alone respect. For a lot of American soccer people and American soccer culture, it was the first time we were elevated above ground. It wasn’t a niche sport anymore.’’
Had the U.S. failed to get out of the group stage in 1994, there are many in the sport who believe Major League Soccer never would have come to fruition, which it eventually did in 1996.
Lalas vividly recalled the pressure the ’94 team faced as it tried to legitimize the sport in America.
“Fortunately, we didn’t f–-k it up,’’ Lalas said. “Because that was a real consideration. We needed to do well for the future of this sport that we love.’’
The U.S. advanced through Group A before losing to eventual World Cup champion Brazil in the Round of 16.
“We felt the pressure in 1994 because we felt like we needed to leave some sort of legacy so that MLS could start and people would get behind soccer a little more in this country,’’ former midfielder Tab Ramos, another U.S. star on that team, told The Post.
“Getting out of the ’94 group stage showed the world that America could play football,” Hugo Perez, a midfielder on the team, told The Post.
The U.S. opened the tournament with a draw against Switzerland, beat Colombia at the Rose Bowl thanks to an infamous own goal, then lost narrowly to Romania — but managed to move on with its four points.
“For us, ’94 changed all of our lives,’’ Marcelo Balboa, a center back on the 1994 team, told The Post. “We could have either made soccer or broken soccer [in America] if we had not gotten out of the group. If we got blown out in those three games, who knows what would have happened with soccer [in the U.S.]? We knew the pressure of having to get out of the group and what it could do for soccer in this country.’’
Cobi Jones, a midfielder on the ’94 team, remembers knowing “the World Cup was an opportunity to have exponential growth” for their burgeoning sport.
“So for us, it was about exceeding the expectations put upon us,’’ Jones said. “We weren’t expected to get out of the group. For us, getting out of the group and losing to the eventual winners of that World Cup, you could look back and say that was a pretty good showing.’’
Midfielder John Harkes, another one of the stars of the ’94 team, said there’s “no chance’’ there would be an MLS today if that U.S. team didn’t make it out of the group stage.
“I’ll argue that with anybody,” Harkes told The Post. “People still overlook that to this day. They don’t realize how critical a turning point it was. It could have gone either way, could have gone downhill quickly. I’m just so happy that it didn’t.’’
While that 1994 team set a foundation, the 2026 team faces pressure to take the sport to another level — in front of friendly home crowds at packed stadiums.
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“It’s time for them to step up and come together as a team and perform,’’ Harkes said. “We have a really good team now. These kids are great players. They’ve had so many great experiences in Europe, they’ve gone through the hard stuff, they’ve built up adversity.”
Balboa said: “These guys have more pressure to do something special, and that means getting out of the group, that means getting to a quarterfinal.”
Ramos said the pressure on this 2026 team is “much different’’ than the pressure his team faced 32 years ago.
“In 1994, we were nobody,’’ he said. “A lot of our careers depended on us doing well, so we had a lot of pressure. Now, we’re talking about getting out of our group in first place.’’
Lalas dismissed talk of the home-team pressure with heightened expectations for this U.S. team, saying, “That’s letting them off the hook a little bit.’’
“This is a generation of players that, from a very young age, has been given absolutely everything in terms of resources, pathways, facilities, coaching and general opportunities that none of us could have even dreamed about,’’ he said. “That’s progress. That’s evolution. But with that comes higher expectations.
“We should expect this men’s team in the summer of 2026, given the talent, the depth and the resources this team has had, to do things that you haven’t seen. … This is a group that the U.S. should win.’’
The elephant in the room, of course, is the prospect of the U.S. failing to advance out of its group, which Lalas said, “would be an abject failure, a huge disappointment, and most importantly, a completely wasted opportunity.’’
“To waste that by a poor performance would be a failure and incredibly damaging,’’ Lalas said. “I still walk down the street and people come up to me and talk about the summer of ’94 and how it changed the way they think about the game.
“I want that same thing to happen many years from now. I’ll probably be gone, but hopefully there will be a generation that looks back and says, ‘Man, that summer of ’26, that was kick-ass, that was something special.’ ’’
— Ethan Sears contributed to this story
