As the home invasion of North America known as FIFA World Cup 2026™ mercifully draws to a close, I thought I should share one of my ticket stubs and a memory or two from 1994 FIFA World Cup (World Cup USA ’94).
AI Snippet: The author reminisces about their experiences during the 1994 FIFA World Cup in Michigan and San Francisco, including memorable games, the unique “real/fake grass” installation, and the lively atmosphere. They also share amusing anecdotes about traveling with a friend and insights into cultural encounters, both in sports and music, highlighting contrasting city vibes.
Michigan Games (Pontiac Silverdome)
In addition to hosting 4 World Cup games in , the long-gone Pontiac Silverdome hosted a friendly between England and Germany in ’93. Effenberg and Klinsmann scored for Germany, while Platt scored via bicycle kick for England.
USA Cup ’93 game
The ’93 friendly was a way to test the real/fake grass that Michigan State University had developed and installed at the Silverdome to see if it was suitable for World Cup 94. There’s a 2-page PDF from the MSU Department of Crop and Soil Science outlining the process they used to develop and maintain the real/fake grass that is quite interesting.
If you prefer watching to reading, there is also a video about the real/fake grass available from MSU and from VICE TV.
Oh the weather inside was frightful, but the grass inside was delightful
It wasn’t that hot of a day outside, but the Silverdome didn’t have AC since it was mainly used in the fall for Detroit Lions NFL games and didn’t need it. SO it was HOT inside.
After the game, England coach Graham Taylor complained about the lack of “weather”, saying that it took away an element of unpredictability from the game. Yeah, it was a lack of wind that cost you the game, Taylor. 62,126 people showed up and the real/fake grass held up, so a success all round.
(England failed to qualify for World Cup USA ’94, and to “celebrate”, an England supporter displayed a giant banner at one of the Silverdome games reading “You’ve made us proud, Taylor“)
World Cup ’94 games in Michigan
Being American made it easier to secure tickets to World Cup ’94, and I was fortunate to have an American amigo to help out in that regard: my friend Mike. He secured a bunch of tickets to all the games in Michigan, and a pair to the quarterfinal game in San Francisco at Stanford.
World Cup ’94 games played at the Silverdome:
June 18, 1994: United States 1, Switzerland 1 (Group A)
June 22, 1994: Switzerland 4, Romania 1 (Group A)
June 24, 1994: Russia 1, Sweden 3 (Group B)
June 28, 1994: Sweden 1, Brazil 1 (Group B)
The only World Cup USA ’94 game I attended in Michigan was the Russia/Sweden game. I remember nothing at all of the game. I do remember the atmosphere outside before the game, though. The mood was “so what”, and there were a LOT of people with fistfuls of tickets trying to sell them. I also remember the Sweden fans being obnoxious, but the Sweden fans I encountered later in San Francisco were fantastic. Go figure.
What I DO remember about soccer in Pontiac
I remember walking around in Pontiac before the game. It was two Americans and two Canadians. The streets were pretty quiet, probably about normal. Normal, that is, until we saw an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) rolling down the street. Then things got funny. When we saw a soldier pop his head out of the APC looking like he was expecting action, things got hilarious!
I also remember the 89X Birthday Bash the day after…
89X is an “alternative” station based in Windsor that serves the Detroit market. It is a prime example of the Canadian economy being dependent upon the American market. It is also now owned by Bell Media, which also says a lot about Canada.
89X puts on music festivals on occasion, as radio stations are prone to do, “for whatever reason”, and the one after the soccer game looked to be pretty good, so we hung out in Michigan for an extra day. In hindsight, the lineup looks really good:
- Beck
- Afghan Whigs
- Odds
- Polvo
- Scrawl
- Sponge
- Superchunk
- Trumans Water
We’d seen Polvo open for fIREHOSE at St. Andrews in Detroit about a year before, and they completely won everyone over, including Mike Watt, who put his arm straight out, made a fist, and demanded “Let’s hear it for Polvo! POLVO!“
Superchunk were incredible and made me a fan for life.
The crowd was divided on Beck. Is he a genius, or is he a joke? I remember saying something like “I think he is completely void of talent, but he is fun as hell.”
Toronto Maple Leafs sweater got me into trouble!
And like an idiot, I wore my Toronto Maple Leafs sweater – in Detroit. I took a lot of grief for that, including from Goober of Goober & The Peas, as I was in the lineup to use the porta-potties. The temp toilets were lined along the edge of the venue, which was on top of a parking garage. As I entered the outhouse, I recall thinking, “This is going to be a shitty way to die!”
The quarterfinal World Cup game in San Francisco
Mike and I flew out to San Fran from Detroit, I forget which airport. All the way out there, he was singing The Replacements ‘ ” Waitress in the Sky. We’d seen Westerberg at St. Andrew’s a year ago too, so maybe that was part of the reason for having a song Paul wrote for his sister on repeat for 2400 miles.
We stayed in Sunnyvale – home of Atari!
Mike booked us a room in Sunnyvale, which was pretty cool because that is where Atari was based, and Atari was a HUGE thing for our generation. I had both an Atari 2600 (who didn’t?), a 5200 (who DID?), and an Atari 520T computer.
On the other hand, staying where we did meant a half-hour walk to the Caltrain Station, then an hour ride into SF. We were young, and I thought it was really cool at the time, but looking back, 32 years later, it seems stupid.
The daily commute from Motel 6 to Sunnyvale Caltrain
But then again, I got to develop a close personal bond with the guy at the train station coffee shop. We only shared one word between the two of us, but that one word included tons of good emotions and signified a deep, rich flavour, errr, I mean bond: COFFEE.
Every morning when he saw me, he would wake up, and he seemed to grow taller as his smile widened. A little laugh, a knowing point, and then the word.
“Hey, hey! Coffee?!”
His “coffee” said, “Hello, great to see you again. Another beautiful day in Silicon Valley, eh? You having the usual?”
“Coffay!”
My “coffay” was a one-word secret “handshake” that renewed and deepened our friendship. My “coffee” said that all is great, that I am happy to know you and be visiting your fantastic part of the world, and that your coffee rocks my world.
South San Francisco – The Industrial City
The commute from Sunnyvale to SF included wonderful visions of scenic South San Francisco. I guess I always had unrealistic visions of San Fran, thinking it was a beautiful oasis where weirdos and outcasts could fit in and build a better city and life, based on art and creativity and stuff.
It wasn’t the dirty hippies or the gold rush that invoked that image of San Francisco in my mind. It was Jello Biafra and Dead Kennedys mostly, but also Kerouac, Ginsberg, the punk band Flipper, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights bookstore, SRL, Negativland, radio station KPFA, etc.
Well, San Francisco is NOT that. Even in ’94 it was a city overrun by homeless people and drug addicts. But it was also a place where right-wing maniacs would try to throw people feeding the hungry with free soup in jail. My late wife and I visited SF 3 years later in ’97, and it was even worse. SF in those days was a precursor of what Toronto in 2026 would become.
Gimme Detroit over San Francisco or Toronto any day of the week!
Pacific Coast League (PCL) exhibit in Oakland
The Pacific Coast League (PCL) was a baseball league that flourished on, you guessed it, the west coast for 100 years (55 or so if you fact check these things, and I know some of you do) . The writing was on the wall when MLB and GREED moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to LA and the NY Giants to SF.
There just happened to be a PCL exhibit happening in Oakland when Mike and I were out in the Bay Area, so we went over there to check it out, and I am very glad we did.
While there I learned about the SF Seals (the team, not the band) and how Seals Stadium had 3 dressing rooms. One was for the Seals, another for the visiting team, and the third was for the Mission Reds who shared the ballpark with the Seals for 7 years before moving to LA to become the Hollywood Stars.
I also learned about the great Jigger Statz. Jigger Statz is one of only nine players (along with Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Ichiro Suzuki, Hank Aaron, Minnie Miñoso, Julio Franco, Derek Jeter, and Stan Musial) known to have recorded at least 4,000 hits in professional baseball across all leagues.
After checking out the PCL exhibit we had a couple of drinks and lunch at The Court Lounge in Oakland which later turned into The Ruby Room and apparently Green Day loved. You can read about that experience here.
And speaking of America’s Pastime, Mike and I took in a Giants game at fabled Candlestick Park, home to The Beatles last concert ever. It also happened to be the first of 29 games that Darryl Strawberry would play as a Giant in 1994.
My Dougie Gilmour sweater paid off again at Candlestick. A couple of kids sitting a couple of rows back spent about 6 innings trying to figure out how to pronounce “GILMOUR” out loud.
FUN FACT: 3 years later when my wife and I visited SF, our first hotel was not far from Candlestick. While I was on the phone with Jello Biafra beforehand, he said in that great voice of his “ewwwww, THAT’s a hairy neighborhood!”
Oh yeah, the World Cup Game we went to in San Francisco
Well it was actually played at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. We had cheap seats behind one of the nets, and the stadium was bare bones, which I loved. The stadium has since been demolished and rebuilt.
The game was a semifinal match, played between Sweden and Romania. It was a great game, ending in a draw, with Sweden defeating Romania 5-4 on penalties. The only issue was that the net used for penalties was NOT the one we sat behind!
The real World Cup started after the game finished
Mike and I hung out with a couple of cool Swedes after the game for a while and had a great time. I had my Gilmour sweater on, of course, and the Swedes loved that because former Toronto Maple Leaf great Borje Salming was like a God to them.
The Swedes turned the old soccer chant Olé, Olé, Olé into BS BS BS in honour of Borje Salming. It was impossible to explain to them what BS means in North American culture.
Naturally the topic of Canadian icon and legendary hockey announcer Don Cherry came up. I was explaining “Grapes” to the Swedes and saying, “EVERYBODY knows who Don Cherry is!”
Don Cherry: Canadian ICON
For those of you who do not, Don Cherry holds an incredible place in Canadian culture. He was voted the most popular Canadian alive many times when he would appear between periods during a Saturday night hockey game in Canada, and would be watched by at least 1/3 of the country. Cherry’s segment was called Coach’s Corner.
Cherry had the gravity of Foster Hewitt did before him, and was kind of the Canadian version of the NFL’s John Madden. That is no exaggeration. I was once in a bar in Michigan and a drunk proudly proclaimed he was “Converting to Canadianism” after watching an episode of Coach’s Corner.
Just then a very attractive female jogger approached us in the opposite direction. I asked her if she knew who Don Cherry was, hoping to prove my point. She stopped and jogged in place:
“The jazz trumpeter?”
At that point in my life, I had no idea who Don Cherry the jazz trumpeter was. I later learned that he was a legend and played with many of the all-time greats, including Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and Sun Ra. Cherry played on the seminal jazz record Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1961).
Don Cherry and Don Cherry (L-R)
Some of Us / Sum of Us
Later on, Mike and I were hanging out with a couple of other guys. One was an American, and the other one had moved to SF from England and was close to becoming a US citizen. One of the things he was excited about was that once he took the pledge and officially became an American, he could choose any name he wanted.
Some of Us / Sum of Us was the name he was going to go with. He explained the reasoning and beauty behind it to us a few times, and we pretended to love the idea. Really though, we had no idea and he might as well have been trying to explain why BS is not a good thing in North America to a couple of Swedes. Oh wait…
The Day After the World Cup
Mike had an uncle set him up with a sweet temp job in SF, so he stuck around for a week. I can’t remember the details exactly, but I had a day to check out The City by the Bay by myself for most of a day before flying back to Detroit.
I went by where I thought Subterranean Records was, because I had ordered a bunch of records from them over the years, most notably Flipper vinyl. It turned out to be an automotive garage, so maybe I had the address memorized wrong, or… …forget it, you wouldn’t understand anyway.
I also checked out The Castro, because I mean, when in San Francisco. I found it to be very unfriendly. Whereas elsewhere in the city people would smile and chat with me, I felt very unwelcome in The Castro. A bus driver gave me shit for exiting from the front door. Sure, that was on me, but everybody does that now, and in a city where tourist dollars are essential…
Mike later told me “They had their GADAR our and knew you didn’t belong there.” when I told him how unfriendly I found it.
How about the business side of World Cup USA ’94?
Forward to 1999: I saw APCs in the street again!
In early January of 1999, a heavy snowfall blanketed Toronto and shut it down for a few delightful days. To get the city back up and running, Mayor Mel Lastman “called in the army” to clear the snow. So once again, APCs were prowling a North American city during peacetime.
Lastman was ridiculed at the time, and almost 30 years later he continues to be for his decision.
If my mind thought, this was the greatest use of “military power” in my lifetime.
Leave a Reply