An 18-year-old Tony Meola was convinced that his first international appearance for the U.S. national team was going be his last.
He wore the Red, White and Blue for the full national side for the first time in an international friendly against Ecuador in Albuquerque, N.M., on June 7, 1988.
The U.S. lost, 1-0, and the 'keeper took full blame and responsibility for the game's lone goal. He tackled a player in the penalty area and was unable to stop the subsequent penalty kick.
"I thought that was it, I would never get called back again," Meola, 37, said last week.
Lothar Osiander, who once directed the Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Clash (now Houston Dynamo), was the national team coach back then.
"We didn't have the luxury to consider it a friendly game," Meola said. "We had to take every game like it was the end of the world. We hadn't been in a World Cup forever and the World Cup (qualifying) was about to start."
The Olympic roster was being finalized for the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. Meola was named an alternate.
"That's the reason why I played that game," he said. "They wanted to rest David Vanole and Jeff Duback. I made my mark by taking a guy down for a PK."
Meola laughed.
Some 17 1/2 years and 99 appearances later, Meola finds himself at the threshold of what few goalkeepers have accomplished -- 100 caps. In the U.S.'s World Cup warm-up match against Jamaica in Cary, N.C., on Tuesday, the 37-year-old Meola will join an exclusive club, becoming the 13th international 'keeper to hit the century mark, according to statistics kept by the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF).
His name will stand alongside the likes of Denmark's Peter Schmeichel, Italy's Dino Zoff, Mexico's Jorge Campos, Sweden's Thomas Ravelli, England's Peter Shilton, Northern Ireland's Pat Jennings, Brazil's Claudio Taffarel and Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Al-Deayea, recognized as the all-time 'keeper leader with 166 international appearances.
He also will become the ninth U.S. player -- and the first American 'keeper -- to scale that plateau, joining Cobi Jones (164), Jeff Agoos (134), Marcelo Balboa (127), Paul Caligiuri (100), Claudio Reyna (108), Eric Wynalda (106), Earnie Stewart (101) and Joe-Max Moore (100).
To appreciate the accomplishment, you must remember that the goalkeeping position is unique because only one player can play at a time. It isn't like midfield where as many as five players will patrol the pitch. Goalkeeper's caps are earned slowly, but surely.
And if you're not up to the task in this high profile position, a replacement can be found. That goes double or triple in the United States, which has been blessed with some of the best in the world (2002 World Cup hero Brad Friedel, current 'keeper Kasey Keller and Manchester United backup Tim Howard, just to drop the names of a few sure-handed guys).
Asked about the significance of reaching No. 100, Meola replied, "It looks a heck of a lot better than 99. I don't have to answer any more questions. I've been answering (laughs): 'Are you going to get your 100?' for like four years now. It's just one of those milestones and set by other players around the world. I'm excited to hopefully have my name on that list."
Meola was poised to break the barrier two years ago. Coach Bruce Arena was ready to call the Kearny, N.J., native up for the two World Cup qualifiers with Grenada in June 2004. But then Colorado Rapids coach Tim Hankinson refused to allow Pablo Mastroeni to leave his team until after his regularly scheduled MLS game against the Wizards. K.C. had no problems with Meola, Josh Wolff and Kerry Zavagnin entering a mini-camp. But to be fair to both sides, Arena wouldn't call up any players from those teams.
"I was disappointed," Meola said. "And then the injury hit me right after that. It was like bad karma at the time. I just waited it out and fought my way back. I am trying to just take this game for what it is, a big honor. It's just something that a lot of guys play with the national team, but don't hit that milestone."
Meola's resume should be familiar to most soccer fans. He has performed in two World Cups -- Italia '90 (at 21 he was one of the youngest 'keepers, if not the youngest one, to start in any of those cups) and USA '94 -- and sat the bench as the No. 3 man in 2002. An MLS original, Meola quickly forged a reputation as one of the league's best when he first played with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars for the very first time against the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Rose Bowl on April 13, 1996. He was traded to the Kansas City Wizards prior to the 1999 MLS season and became a fixture in the goal, backstopping the club's 2000 MLS Cup championship. He took home a trophy case of awards that season, including league MVP, MLS Best XI and MLS Cup MVP.
He returned to the MetroStars last season as they have been re-branded as the New York Red Bulls.
Meola hopes his early season form will impress Arena enough to take him to Germany for the World Cup this June. Keller is the obvious No. 1 choice, followed by Marcus Hahnemann, who helped Reading get promoted to the English Premiership. Howard appears to have an inside track on the third position. But there are always injuries and players falling in and out of form.
"He said it was not completely out of the question," Meola said of a recent conversation he had with Arena. "Right now if he had to go today -- he hasn't seen me play -- so that wouldn't be the case. I wouldn't be going. As he has said for a long time, 'I know what you can do, I know what you do for a team. I'll certainly give it to you if I need you.' And he has said that since the day he took the job. He always knows that every time he has asked me to play for him, I've always been there and played well for him and been in every role he has asked me to play."
Arena coached Meola for a season at the University of Virginia in 1989 before the U.S. national team beckoned during qualifying and the World Cup itself.
He was between the posts for three of the most significant games in U.S. soccer history.
The 1-0 victory over Trinidad & Tobago in Port-of-Spain in November 1989, which boosted the U.S. into its first World Cup in 40 years, is at the top of his list, followed by the 2-1 World Cup stunner over Colombia in June 1994 and the 2-0 triumph over England, when he continually stuffed high-scoring striker Ian Wright and company in June 1993.
Meola said the T&T triumph was No. 1 "because, looking back on the repercussions if we had hadn't scored a goal and hadn't won the game, what it possibly could have been like."
The U.S. already had qualified for the 1994 World Cup as hosts, so the Americans needed to show the world they could do it on the field, not the board room, and team made up of recent college graduates needed high-level international experience before USA '94. There was no highly competitive pro league in the U.S. at the time.
"I had an advantage. I was playing soccer in college," Meola said. "Some guys were working in jobs. At least I was playing soccer every day. It's kind of weird to think that that team could have done anything in soccer."
Meola remembered, "We tried to kill as much time of the game we could. I think the (Caligiuri) goal certainly stands out in that game, wondering how did that thing go in?"
He then laughed.
The 2-1 victory over Colombia at USA '94 propelled the Americans into the second round as Andres Escobar accidentally put the first U.S. goal into his own net before Stewart gave the hosts some breathing room with a late goal.
"Unfortunately, when I think of that game, I can't go too long without thinking that somebody got killed after the game," Meola said. "It's just always in the back of my mind. Obviously the win was great. But the fact someone was murdered over a soccer game still keeps me alive. I remember hearing the news. I wasn't happy then. It still doesn't make me happy because that isn't what soccer is about."
The U.S.'s 2-0 victory over England in U.S. Cup '93 at Foxborough, Mass., wasn't as significant as the previous two matches, but it sure boosted the team's confidence and let the world know that the U.S. was on its way up.
Meola stood on his head, making saves after save after save off of quality shots.
"There were some good ones in that game," he said. "It was just one of those nights when it all came to together.
"Ian Wright was about as frustrated as I ever made a forward, I think. He didn't stop the whole game. He used some words you probably can't print anyway, so there's no use saying them. He trash-talked the whole game. I'll never forget it."
His best save for either club or country? That's easy against current teammate Chris Henderson when the midfielder played for the Colorado Rapids in 1997.
"They got a view of Henderson bending one against New York. He's got his hands up in the air," Meola said. "He's about to celebrate and I come and pick it out of the corner. It goes by the post by a hair. It's my favorite save. It's always been my favorite save because I felt like I was robbing somebody. I bust his chops about it all the time."
He still has some goals as a goalkeeper.
For this season, they are basic and simple.
"On this team, we have to win a championship. That's the bottom line," he said. "The other one is to put myself in the top of the goalkeepers again in the league, back where I left off just before the injury. Also, to be part of something again that is meaningful one more time with the National Team, whether it's CONCACAF or whatever. That's going to take some time. It's going to take some effort.
For a long-range goal, it's something else.
"I want to play where I could still be the difference of seven or eight points in a year," he said. "If I can't then it's not really worth it. Then someone else can take it. I think that's what you ask of your goalkeepers in every single league in the world."
On Tuesday night, though, there is no other place in the world where Tony Meola would rather be than guarding the net at SAS Soccer Park in Cary.
Michael Lewis, who has written about Tony Meola since the goalkeeper was a youth standout in 1987, writes about soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
