The venue
Rose Bowl – Pasadena, California
It was built for ‘The Granddaddy of Them All’, as the Rose Bowl Game – the annual college football showdown – has become known, and the striking stadium has steadfastly stood the test of time. Eighteen months before USA 1994, it staged the Super Bowl for the fifth time, equalling the record held by Miami’s Orange Bowl, with Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith inspiring the Dallas Cowboys to a 52–17 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills.
The Rose Bowl was home to the LA Aztecs for two years from 1978, during which time Rinus Michels sat at their controls and George Best and Johan Cruyff were on their roster, while Henri Michel coached France to victory over a Brazil side featuring Dunga there in the gold-medal match at the 1984 Olympics.
Aside from sport, it has hosted Americafest – the nation’s biggest Independence Day firework celebration – since the 1920s and sell-out concerts from the likes of Depeche Mode, Guns N’ Roses, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Journey, Pink Floyd, The Cure and The Rolling Stones.
USA 2-1 Colombia
Group stage
Attendance: 93,869
The Stars and Stripes hadn’t won a World Cup game in 44 years. Pele had backed Los Cafeteros to win the competition. It told in the first 30, with Valderrama, Rincon and Asprilla flickering their carnival genius and only Meola’s rapid reflexes – and the woodwork – preserving deadlock. Thereafter, however, Ramos and Harkes began to decrypt Colombia and from the former’s imaginative through-ball, Stewart cannily stroked the ball into a tiny pocket inside the post for the winner.
Romania 3-2 Argentina
Last 16
Attendance: 90,469
‘Maradona versus The Maradona of the Carpathians’ ultimately belied its billing, tactical and climatic norms, and the odds. ‘El Diego’watched it up in the stands, working for Argentinian television. Anghel Iordanescu, in the absence of suspended striker Florin Raducioiu, fielded an unheard 3-7-0 formation. Despite kicking off at 1:30pm, under California’s searing sun, it was an electric-paced, end-to-end encounter. And little Romania, who had never won a knockout-phase game at the tournament, stunned an Argentina side that had won two and reached three of the previous four World Cup finals.
Brazil 0-0 Italy (3-2 PSO)
Final
Attendance: 94,194
The final didn’t belong to ‘Shortie’ of the ‘Divine Ponytail’. At its end, a man who went into the competition without a club, and playing up front for his local church’s team, was raising his arms towards the heavens as Baggio hung his head.