LAist0%
'Summer of '94': How the last World Cup on American soil changed US soccer forever 29%
By Maya Mukherjee0%
6/19/2026, 5:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Optimism Bias, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Indoctrination, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 18.1% saturation with 83 hits. Analysis detected 545 faulty-reasoning hits from 459 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 39.2% and a BS Rank of 29% (15,702 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 71.70% of the article peer group.
Although thousands have flocked to SoFi stadium for the World Cup, soccer wasn’t always a fan-favorite sport in the United States.
The sport’s rise to popularity began when the U.S. hosted its first World Cup in 1994.
At that time, the men’s soccer team was virtually unknown.
<i>Summer of ’94</i>, a new documentary directed by Chad N.
Walker and Dave LaMattina, chronicles the U.S. team’s unlikely run during their first home World Cup.
At a screening in LAist’s Crawford Family Forum Room, viewers got an early look at the film.
LAist’s Libby Rainey later moderated a talkback with Alan Rothenberg, the president of U.S.
Soccer in the 1990s, and Chris Leggett and Amanda Farrand, both producers of the film.
Rothenberg said “there was a lot of pressure to hire an American coach” for the home team.
But he said he “felt there was a necessity to have a coach with international experience.”
Milutinović also emerged as a centerpiece of the documentary, which the producers said they didn’t expect.
“We just started falling in love with Bora, and after one interview with him, where he started [...] coaching the directors, we were like, this guy is magic,” Farrand said.
Leggett said that players were able to better understand Milutinović’s strategy through the documentary.
He said that during the interview process, “what was very obvious was [the players] were really digesting and getting to understand Bora as well.”
Rothenberg said that since that World Cup, funding for U.S. soccer took off.
The team’s performance, “enabled us to immediately follow up and create Major League Soccer,” he said.
At that time, the organization had a $50 million surplus, which Rothenberg said they used to create a nonprofit for “underserved communities.”
In 1999, the U.S. hosted the Women’s World Cup in major stadiums.
Rothenberg said that since that World Cup, public interest in soccer has only increased.
Now, we might even be underselling how popular the sport is.
“Soccer has been underestimated to this day.
It's still the number one participant sport in the country,” he said.
Farrand said the film sought to inspire not just future players, but also volunteer coaches.
“If we could use this moment and this movie to inspire former players and parents to lean into coaching, we could really make a difference,” she said.
She added that volunteer coaching is “an act of civic participation,” which she encouraged attendees to consider ahead of the U.S.’s 250th anniversary of independence.
Both Rothenberg and Farrand pointed to the Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S. in 2031, as the next landmark event.
You can find where to stream on the documentary's website.
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4speakers58%attributed speech193writer words
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100%flagged-word coverageAmanda Farrand
97 attributed words36% of attributed speech53% writer coverage
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