Mark Berson has been here before – 32 years ago, to be exact. He just has more opportunities to enjoy it this time around.
Back in 1994, the first and most recent year that soccer’s World Cup came to American shores, Berson was naturally interested in watching the premier sporting event for most of the planet. He was in his 18th of an eventual 43 seasons as South Carolina’s soccer coach, though then his primary preoccupation was his Gamecocks teams. He’d founded USC’s soccer program in 1978, after all.
Before retiring in 2021, the Summit, N.J., native won 522 games at USC – at the time, the most victories for an active coach – and led his teams to 22 NCAA tournaments, including a national runner-up finish in 1993. More relevant in 1994 and now, he coached 32 players who later played for national teams, including Clint Mathis, Josh Wolff and Brad Guzan, stars for the U.S. Men’s National Teams (USMNT).
Add his current retirement job as a match director for Major League Soccer, and Berson’s bona fides in “futbol” are established. Who better, then, to offer an overview of the soccer madness sweeping the U.S., Canada and Mexico this summer?
The 73-year-old laughs at that; he said his primary perch for watching this year’s matches is his recliner, with “plenty of Visine next to my chair.” He has connections with FIFA through his MLS position if he wanted to attend games, and if he wants more of a fan experience, “I might go sometimes to Cock N Bull,” a soccer-centric bar on Rosewood Drive.
But “to be honest, I prefer watching the games by myself,” he said. At a watch party, “people ask me questions and I can’t hear anything.” At home, nothing disturbs his focus on the matches – and the bigger picture of what this World Cup can mean to America.
“This event is going to transform the U.S.,” Berson said. “It’ll make those ESPN guys sit up and take notice, and the country will notice.”
Former South Carolina Men’s Soccer Coach Mark Berson
You could say the U.S. already has, as crowds rivaling those at college and NFL games have been filling stadiums in 11 U.S. cities, plus three Mexican and two Canadian venues. Home viewers can tune into Fox and FS1 between now and the finals on July 19 at “New York New Jersey Stadium” (aka MetLife Stadium). Yeah, it’s a big deal.
Berson saw it coming 32 years ago. “I went to the Finals at the Rose Bowl,” where Brazil outlasted Italy 3-2 on penalty kicks, in front of 90,000 fans. “It was great to see.” This year, though, is no mere repeat of that.
In 1994, the U.S. was a decade removed from the meteoric rise, and then disappearance, of the North American Soccer League. U.S. fans thrilled to watch Brazil’s Pele and (then-West) Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer, who played for the New York Cosmos. But by 1985, the league had died.
“Time Warner (which owned the Cosmos) had the resources to bring in Pele and the others,” Berson said. “They put on a great show in New York, but it wasn’t a sustainable structure.” Still, FIFA knew a sleeping giant when it saw one, and hosting the 1994 World Cup came with a condition: the U.S. had to re-establish a professional league. Thus was born MLS in 1996.
The 1994 Cup “opened the eyes of the U.S., how incredibly exciting it is,” he said. “The U.S. stadiums were 90 percent full,” averaging 70,000 a game, still a World Cup record. It didn’t hurt, either, that the U.S. team played well in preliminary matches and in a 1-0 round-of-16 loss to eventual champion Brazil.
That brings us to 2026 and a quite different soccer reality. “We used to look at the World Cup as the standard by which everything was measured” in terms of national teams’ styles of play, Berson said. “Now it’s the Champions League,” which pits teams from Europe’s professional leagues in competition outside their home league schedules.
“Modern trends are reflected more in the Champions League because they have all year to establish those,” Berson said. “They can buy the best players from everywhere.” The rosters of powerhouses Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid are filled with players from all around the world, including some smaller nations’ best talent.
That said, the World Cup still draws rapt attention every four years. “The wonderful thing is, it’s such a life-changing moment (for players) to be in the World Cup with their national team,” Berson said. “The World Cup is more like an all-star game. Look at the guys from Ivory Coast (which advanced to the Round of 32 before falling to Norway); the small nations have really good players who’ve been sought out by the pro teams – and the search for that talent is ongoing.”
Non-traditional teams have pulled upsets, Paraguay knocking out historic power Germany 4-3 on penalty kicks being the biggest early shocker. DR Congo, formerly the Zaire national team, took England to the wire before losing 2-1 Wednesday.
Technology has also helped bring the world game to the U.S. Premier League and other European matches are available on TV and streaming services. “There are a million games on,” Berson said, and laughed. “I mean, Wrexham? Give me a break,” referring to the FX series “Welcome to Wrexham” about the rise of a small-town team in Wales financed by U.S. movie stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Meanwhile, American players, once low-profile in their native land, now star in European and other pro leagues, as well as MLS … and, this summer, the USMNT. “Tim Ream, obviously,” Berson said of the U.S. captain, who plays for MLS’ Charlotte franchise. Sebastian Berhalter (MLS’ Vancouver Whitecaps) and Malik Tillman of Bundesliga (Germany) club Bayer Leverkusen are others.
And there’s the face of Team USA, Christian Pulisic, who Berson calls “a reluctant star. He just wants to play. He’s uncomfortable in the spotlight (if not being featured in TV commercials), but that’s been thrust on him since (the 2022 World Cup in) Qatar,” when the AC Milan winger from Hershey, Pa., emerged as the U.S.’s top player.
Rarely has the USMNT been a World Cup factor; its best finish was eighth in 2002, not counting a third-place finish in the inaugural 1930 event, when just 13 teams participated. This month, No. 1-ranked France, Spain, Portugal and Argentina “are really loaded,” while England and Morocco (which ousted another traditional contender, Netherlands) are “solid,” Berson said.
“But from the USA’s standpoint, you don’t have to beat every team in the tournament; you just have to beat the next one in front of you. That’s the beauty of this: if someone has the best team but has an off night, they can lose.”
Too, he said, “being at home is massive (for the USMNT). The crowd in Seattle was amazing in the last preliminary game,” and after a 2-0 win Wednesday over Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Americans will face Belgium, a 3-2 winner over Senegal, on July 6 in front of Seattle’s notorious “12th Man” crowd, which always gives their NFL Seahawks raucous support.
Regardless of which teams make it to New York on July 19, the real winner will be U.S. soccer and its future, Berson said. The climb to relevance in the world’s favorite sport began in earnest 32 years ago, and this year has been a major step up. “In soccer, it’s not always the most complete team that goes through,” he said. “That’s where you get the incredible drama.”
Berson, and his recliner, are ready for it.