USMNT Archives - Generation Zero

Why the Mainstreaming of U.S. soccer & The Dream Team Share a Movement

Why the Mainstreaming of U.S. soccer & The Dream Team Share a Movement

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T11:04:15-04:00February 16th, 2024|GZ blog|

During the late 1980s — when super powers went mono, mullets were fashionable, and iconic walls came crashing down — it was easy to miss the internationalization of American team sport. Yet this phenomenon took shape all through the first Bush Era, step by step, forever changing big hunks of the U.S. sporting landscape. The Mainstreaming of U.S. Soccer first took cultural hold in 1989; two years later the modern U.S.-Mexico rivalry was officially joined. The Global Era of American [...]

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Expect Change, Fireworks from USWNT Coach Emma Hayes

Expect Change, Fireworks from USWNT Coach Emma Hayes

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T12:28:47-04:00November 20th, 2023|GZ blog|

Color me extremely curious when it comes to USWNT Coach Emma Hayes. Her tenure as head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team remains pending. She won’t take the helm until spring, when her season with Chelsea FC has concluded. Still, the timing of her hire drips with big-picture import, none of which has anything to do with pay equity (though she will make exactly the same as her USMNT counterpart, Gregg Berhalter 2.0). Even with her delayed arrival, [...]

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Hubert Vogelsinger created Youth Soccer Revolutionaries

Hubert Vogelsinger created Youth Soccer Revolutionaries

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T07:54:17-04:00June 28th, 2023|GZ blog|

Video evidence of the 1974 World Cup was not made available to me until July 1977. That was the summer I first attended overnight soccer camp, a veritable rite of passage for me and so many fellow members of Generation Zero, those American boys and girls born in the 1960s, then raised in the 1970s as this country’s very first soccer natives. The Puma All-Star Soccer Camp, where I matriculated three straight summers, was owned and operated by Hubert [...]

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USMNT Photo Mystery Solved; Roman Colosseum Shrugs Off Another Narrative Poseur

USMNT Photo Mystery Solved; Roman Colosseum Shrugs Off Another Narrative Poseur

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:01:43-04:00May 20th, 2023|GZ blog|

Let’s get straight to the point: It’s a fake. Each of the above images is a clever fabrication, but the team shot — commissioned by a certain sports outfitter to congratulate the 1990 U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) on its history-making World Cup qualification — was not taken on site, in front of the Roman Colosseum, during Italia ‘90. This admittedly minor historical ruse was confirmed by national team veteran John Stollmeyer (front row, second from left) in early [...]

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Only Now Recovering from ‘Berhalter Fatigue’? Time to Buckle Back Up

Only Now Recovering from ‘Berhalter Fatigue’? Time to Buckle Back Up

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:15:21-04:00March 27th, 2023|GZ blog|

My own case of Berhalter Fatigue kicked in around Dec. 17, 2022 — a day before the World Cup final, 10 days into the Berhalter-Reyna Family Barbecue, and two weeks after Holland dumped the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) out of the tournament. The tawdry nature of Berhalter’s unprecedented bust-up with the Reynas could not be fully understood until last week, when the U.S. Soccer Federation released its third-party report. No one emerges unscathed from this full and [...]

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USMNT Help Wanted: Creatures of the Federation Need Not Apply

USMNT Help Wanted: Creatures of the Federation Need Not Apply

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:21:13-04:00January 28th, 2023|GZ blog|

The departures of Men’s National Team Sporting Director Earnie Stewart and General Manager Brian McBride represent a post-World Cup housecleaning, but they also underline the stubbornly clubby, insular nature of soccer administration in this country. The installation of former players to coach and direct national team programs, to head up entire federations, is not uncommon in world futbol. For too long, however, "USMNT Help Wanted" didn't go far enough. U.S. Soccer has promoted strictly from within. For a time, [...]

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Coach Jim Gabarra Preaches the Virtues of Balance, All Year Long

Coach Jim Gabarra Preaches the Virtues of Balance, All Year Long

By Michael Conant|2026-03-15T08:50:57-04:00January 16th, 2023|GZ blog|

Screenshot {SJ Editor: Hal Philips recently published “Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & the Making of Soccer in America.” This is an example of what you will read in the book. Highly recommended! By HAL PHILLIPSWhen Jim Gabarra competed at the highest levels of American soccer—and he did so both indoors and outdoors—players and coaches gave little thought to their transitions from one setting to the other, and back again. What’s more, during the late 1980s and [...]

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The Most Important Cheeseburger Sub in U.S. Soccer History

The Most Important Cheeseburger Sub in U.S. Soccer History

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T09:04:58-04:00January 11th, 2023|GZ blog|

In the pages of Generation Zero and here on the book’s companion site, we’ve spent a good deal of time and space examining exactly when, how and by whose efforts American soccer came of age. Before GZ was but a twinkle in my eye, I engaged with these important questions in an altogether different way when Dr. David Rose called my office, out of the blue, with a question: You remember that time we watched that World Cup game together, [...]

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USMNT Progress Plan: Continue to Crowd-Source Roster Development. In Europe

USMNT Progress Plan: Continue to Crowd-Source Roster Development. In Europe

By Hal Phillips|2026-04-04T15:16:23-04:00December 19th, 2022|GZ blog|

When America plays host to the next World Cup, alongside Mexico and Canada, it will likely field the most talented men’s squad ever trotted out by the U.S. Soccer Federation. And yet, to hear many American soccer fans tell it, there is no USMNT Progress Plan. Our competitive place in the world game remains shamefully uncertain. Ambiguity, it seems, is a poor fit for cultures accustomed to hegemony. Internationally, futbol observers do agree the U.S. has finally amassed a [...]

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