From military brats to birthright citizens: how USMNT’s magnificent mess became its strength

If this incarnation of the US men’s national team has demonstrated anything, it’s that the unusual variety of paths its players have taken to get there is an asset. Photograph: John Dorton/USSF

In 1993, the United States Soccer Federation handed a contract to Rinus Michels. But the Dutch godfather of Total Football, operationalized through his on-field avatar Johan Cruyff, was not hired to coach the national team, or to coach anybody, really.

By this time, Michels, who managed the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League in 1979 and 1980, had already turned down the chance to manage the US men’s national team twice. Once, in 1983, when it would be entered, disastrously, into the NASL as Team America. And once more in 1991, when Bora Milutinović was appointed instead.