MLSsoccer.com polled 22 of our editors, writers, videographers, statistics specialists and social media masters to bring you the Stories of the Year, our annual look at the biggest storylines in Major League Soccer. New media editor Andrew Wiebe, who covered the USMNT at the World Cup for us, breaks down the big MLS presence in Brazil.
Before “For Club and Country” was a catchy marketing gimmick. Before the eyes of the world honed in on 22 men who made their livings in the United States and Canada. Before an American referee proved the rising tide didn’t just apply to the players.
Before the World Cup turned the summer of 2014 into one continuous samba, Major League Soccer began laying the building blocks that would it a transformative year both at home and globally. Brazil would not be South Africa. It would not be Germany. It would not be South Korea or France.
This time – via bank-breaking investments in US national team stalwarts like Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey, an audacious loan move for Brazilian No. 1 goalkeeper Julio Cesar, a commitment to the cultivation of Central American talent and the foresight to attract Australian icon Tim Cahill – MLS would be a prime player on soccer’s grandest stage.
“We need to be a league of choice for the top players in the world,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said before the tournament. “and that starts with being the league of choice for top American players.”
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Four years after just six MLSers boarded planes to South Africa, the league set a record for World Cup participation. Its players captured American hearts with an against-all-odds run to the knockout round, helped turn Costa Rica into one massive party and saw referee Mark Geiger outlast them all.
At the center of it all was the US national team, which tackled the Group of Death with 10 domestic players and five more who began their careers in MLS.
While Bob Bradley saw fit to bring just four players from the league that launched his own professional coaching career, Jurgen Klinsmann built his squad around the likes of Bradley, Dempsey, Sporting KC’s Matt Besler and Graham Zusi, Real Salt Lake’s Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando, Houston’s Brad Davis, LA Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez and tournament darling DeAndre Yedlin.
And while the soccer wasn’t expansive and the aesthetics didn’t necessarily inspire, Klinsmann and his boys slowly clawed their way through Group G, one the rest of the world gave them little chance of navigating.
First, a magical night in Natal saw Dempsey shock Ghana before substitute John Anthony Brooks delivered the kind of comeback win that rallied more than 300 million of his countrymen to the cause. Then Dempsey and Jermaine Jones fueled what looked to be a famous win in the Amazon before Cristiano Ronaldo – battered into submission for the better part of 90 minutes – reasserted his status as the world’s best player.
And what of Germany in flooded Recife? Entirely forgettable apart from Thomas Muller’s brilliant winner and the fact that it was the USMNT, not Ghana or Portugal, that was headed to the knockout rounds. Defeat be damned, it was time to celebrate.
Meanwhile, in Group D, Costa Rica reminded everyone that CONCACAF was more than a pair of powers sandwiched around the Rio Grande.
With Columbus Crew duo Giancarlo González and Waylon Francis and New York Red Bull Roy Miller chipping in, the Ticos claimed back-to-back infamous upsets to start the tournament as Uruguay and Italy fell at the hands of Jorge Luis Pinto’s organized lines and surprisingly potent attack.
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Over in Group B, Cahill was banging in golazos as Australia fought valiantly, but still failed to muster a single point. Meanwhile Cesar, who was moved to tears as an entire nation gathered around their TV sets and watched the Seleção kick off the tournament in São Paolo, finished joint top of Group A alongside Mexico.
Geiger, meanwhile, became something of a star in US soccer circles in his own right. He quietly – and successfully - oversaw Colombia’s victory against Greece and Chile’s triumph over Spain, and then served as the fourth official as Uruguay knocked off Italy and Luis Suarez added yet another famous bite to his toothy legacy.
Respect? Americans on both sides of the player-referee divide had it, and they’d earned it.
“It does translate to the referees,” Geiger said. “If a team comes from a country that’s not really respected, then it’s very difficult to say that a referee also would be respected. We’re in the same boat. To come out and perform well, we were hoping to do that not only for ourselves but to hopefully get respect for Americans that come up after us."
But while the US stumbled in extra time against much-fancied Belgium in picturesque Salvador – an oh-so-close free-kick routine that fell to Dempsey and Chris Wondolowski’s now-infamous miss nearly enough force spot kicks after regulation went scoreless – Geiger, Cesar and Costa Rica marched on to the quarterfinals.
That’s where the Ticos finally fell short, losing a dramatic penalty shootout against the Netherlands following a similar victory of their own in the Round of 16 against Greece. Still, San Jose packed the streets for their boys when they finally returned home to celebrate, flags flying while the Imperial lager flowed like water.
Meanwhile, back in Brazil, the streets emptied and bars, restaurants and living rooms were packed to the gills as Cesar and Brazil took the field in Belo Horizonte against the Germans. On the sideline, Geiger took his position as fourth official, an honor befitting his flawless tournament.
The hosts ultimately lost 7-1 to the eventual champions, ending the tournament for the MLSers in Brazil. And while whatever role the league will play in 2018 is still to be decided, it will be tough to match an unforgettable summer in 2014.
Not for the players, the referee or the cities that welcomed home their heroes.
