By Edward Kensik
John Harkes is considered one of the top soccer players to come out of what is considered in many circles now, ‘Soccertown USA’, the home of the sport in the US in Kearny.
While Kearny knew him from his days at Kearny High School, Harkes broke out on the national scene when he was part of the first United States Men’s National Team to qualify for the World Cup finals in 40 years. Harkes along with Tony Meola and Tab Ramos, all three were part of the Kearny connection, and were part of the 1990 team.
Harkes then was part of the USMNT in 1994 that was hosted by the United States and another major breakout for the sport with the US as hosts. While the 1990 team did not reach the next round, the ’94 USMNT made the Round of 16 before losing a tough match to the eventual champion, Brazil, 1-0.
Along with his accolades in being part of the USMNT, 1985 graduate of the Kearny High School has also been inducted in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2005. After Kearny, Harkes played for the University of Virginia from 1985-87 where he was also a first team All-American.
He was a midfielder who was also a member of DC United as part of the new league, the Major League Soccer. Harkes was part of the DC United that won the first three of the four Major League Soccer championships. The Kearny native played in 90 internationals that included being named co-MVP of the 1995 Copa America in Uruguay.
And he was the first American to play in one of the top European leagues, the Premier League for Sheffield Wednesday. Harkes also played for West Ham United, Derby County and Nottingham Forest.
Since his playing days, Harkes coached a couple of clubs, FC Cincinnati and also the Greenville Triumph from 2015 to 2023. Since then he worked as a technical director for McLean Youth Soccer based in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia.
Harkes talks about his days from when he decided to play for the 1990 USMNT to the 1994 USMNT and the differences between when he was playing and today for US soccer players.
Harkes was interviewed after the 2026 USMNT defeated Paraguay in the first game of the World Cup.
The World Cup final will be held July 19 at MetLife/New York/New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford on July 19.
Kearny Life: What do you think of the new World Cup format that increased teams from 32 to 48?
Harkes: On one hand I think it is pretty good because I like the inclusivity. You always want to open up opportunities for some of these smallest countries. I think that is fantastic. On the other hand, there are a lot of games. This is unprecedented. It is incredible what the United States, Mexico and Canada are doing. It is the first time ever to have this. And so, it doesn’t bug me or bother me to have 48 teams.
Kearny Life: What are your thoughts on the US win over Paraguay?
Harkes : Fantastic, I mean I could not have been more proud of our team like the way they came out with confidence and really played like a team. It was awesome. Really just the combinations out there and sacrificed for each other. It was high level. You look at (Folarin) Balogun, what a goal scorer he is. He showed up and scored two right off the bat and did very well. I mean high level (goals).
It was a great statement, not just a win. So many were criticizing them (before the World Cup). You see the media, Fox and Alexi Lalas (a member of the ’94 USMNT and Fox analyst) and those guys and they really get after the team and question them a lot. I know that is part of their job because they need the conflict and that is what the media does. But at the same time, it’s like look at the quality on the field and the way that these guys played.
Kearny Life: Did you get to see the game (against Paraguay) and what came through your mind?
Harkes: It was a full circle moment for me because it was 32 years ago, playing in the ’94 World Cup, competing, probably having 20 to 25 percent of the American fan base really knowledgeable in the game. Fast forward to today in that stadium and I was in that stadium for the first game. It was electric and the passion and the noise and the way that people were just educated and having conversations. I was like, ‘Wow’.”
Kearny Life : Where were you when you found out that you made the 1990 USMNT?
Harkes: I was actually in Kearny. We were trying to make it and we didn’t really have a high-level pro league. But at the same time, we were still getting together every six to eight weeks, training and getting together. I went to a tryout to Sheffield Wednesday (England) in January 1990 and I did really well. They asked me to stay on and sign a contract, and I said no because I wanted to come back and stay together with my national team in the buildup and maybe I was naive at that time being so young. But I wanted to commit to the national team because this was the first time qualifying in 40 years at the world stage so we wanted to make sure that we were investing in the team. I stayed. I remember getting that phone call from Bob Gansler at the time, our coach. He did so well because we were a bunch of college kids coming together and to get us back to the world stage was pretty amazing.
Kearny Life: The decision of playing the senior year at the University of Virginia or the USMNT?
Harkes: So, I had gone to the Olympics in Seoul, Korea playing for the US team. And when I got back just after that they said well, it’s your senior year (Virginia), you have to make a decision. You’re either going to stay in school or you’re going to go and qualify full time for the national team. And I said what do you mean? Well, they were doing something at that time that had never, ever been tried before and it was to keep the national team players together full time so that we can qualify. And it was like, wow, so I ended up leaving UV in my last year to do that and commit to the USMNT and we were lucky enough we did qualify and the rest was history.
Kearny Life: What was your best memory of qualifying for the 1990 World Cup?
Harkes: That was the last qualifier that we had (against Trinidad and Tobago). The only chance we had to go down to Trinidad and Tobago and win that game. Trinidad and Tobago were celebrating as if they had won already. We had not done very well in qualifying at that point. We had a couple games that we tied 0-0 at home. Another one that we tied at one and we should have won. So it came down to the very last match. And it was do or die and we needed to win. For them they had declared it a national holiday for three days. Their whole country was celebrating and wearing all their red jerseys. So it was a sea of red out there. It was just everywhere. And we had a small amount of support, friends and family came down to the stadium. They all wore all white and just showed the little bits of white in a sea of red. You could see them in this little corner section in the stadium. They took up only three rows. It was hilarious. But that support was vital for us to have self-belief. And we fought in that game. We upset them (1-0, Paul Caliguri goal) on their home soil. It was a big shock. And we realized that we were going to the World Cup as a bunch of kids, 22-year old’s.
Kearny Life: Was the pitch in Trinidad and Tobago bad?
Harkes: It was bad. It was hard and dried out. The ball was just bouncing everywhere so it made it difficult to control the ball and control the game. It was funny because Costa Rica was a difficult field as well. But it seemed on that day (against Trinidad and Tobago), it seemed like everything was against us and it could have been in our minds. The tension in that stadium, their constant singing. We needed to have resilience to fight for who we were and get to the World Cup which we did.
Kearny Life: What were the memories of the 1990 World Cup?
Harkes: We were young, naive and we were going to fight. We were a little shellshocked in the first game (5-1 loss to Czechoslovakia). But I think it was pretty remarkable for us to turn around in the second game and barely lose to Italy (1-0), the host country with all the history in the game that they have and the quality players and the league. Here we are, a bunch of college kids with no league to compete in. We lost 1-0 to them and almost tied the game. So, for us that was a massive success. And it just proved that we could compete at that level. So, it is funny, a lot of people thought it was a failure and you stunk it up. But 1990 was the first time that we got back to that platform so the results did not matter. It was an experience that we were going to return from that and carry that into the next World Cup that was going to really, really have true value.
Kearny Life: What were the memories after the 1990 World Cup in Italy?
Harkes: They gave us a parade down Kearny Avenue to town hall. They gave us (Harkes, Tony Meola and Tab Ramos), a key to the city. It was pretty amazing. There’s footage of it in the ‘Soccertown USA’ documentary.
Kearny Life: What was the talk about the World Cup coming to the US in 1994 and then the MLS?
Harkes: For us to have the World Cup at home was remarkable. I mean it was absolutely incredible in terms of the timeline of the history of the game in this country. It was unheard of at that time. The rest of the world was like what? The US. Why would you even give the US the World Cup? They don’t even have a league.
So, they were saying let’s grow it here and the Major League Soccer started two years later after ’94 and that’s when I came back from England. I was playing in the Premier League and I was with West Ham United at the time and I came back to play for DC United and begin a new league, a new journey. And there were a lot of unknowns and it was a big risk because it wasn’t established. We were building from the ground up. So, when you do that from scratch, there’s a lot of concern, could this league fold in one year or two years. That was something I always wanted. I always wanted to dedicate myself to building this game, making sure we build it for the next generations to be better.
Kearny Life: Missing the match against Brazil in the Round of 16 in 1994 and the World Cup?
Harkes: I was devastated because in the first round I had received a yellow card in the first game and also in the third game against Romania which wasn’t warranted at all. I was standing at the wall with another player and the referee booked me and didn’t give it to the other player. And I was like, what was that for? So, I ended up having to sit out the next round that was the rules against Brazil on July 4th. I was devastated and I was a wreck.
Kearny Life: How did it feel losing to Brazil in ’94?
Harkes: For all of us to lose 1-0 to the eventual champions. It was a good showing on our part especially the fact that we beat Colombia in the first round and tied Switzerland so we got some good results and a lot of people did expect that so we surprised a lot. We surprised our country and a lot of our fan base, kind of woke up from those results. And then to lose to Brazil, it’s always difficult. You hate losing games at that level. But to lose to a champion and the Brazil that has won it five times. We were okay.
Kearny Life: There was a story about the actor Robin Williams coming in to congratulate the team after the loss to Brazil?
Harkes: We were going across the street to have a family team meal, everybody together and just kind of celebrated what we did (after the loss to Brazil). Robin Williams walked in and spoke to us about how proud he was, said some jokes, made us laugh and it was just great. It was so uplifting for us. And I will always remember that. He was so funny and just so genuine in the way he was supporting us so it was great.
Kearny Life: What is the difference today for US soccer players going to Europe and the top leagues as opposed to when you were playing?
Harkes: It’s completely different because the landscape has changed dramatically. For me to be the first American in the Premier League was pretty amazing and people still don’t realize how hard that was to break in and be accepted. Nowadays our players are accepted just like everybody else. And so those barriers, they don’t have to tear down those walls right now. They just got to show that they can play and they do. They’ve competed well. The game has changed dramatically. There’s more possession emphasized quite a bit than it was back in the day. But just because the style of play may be a little bit different doesn’t mean the talent level’s lower or higher. It just that there are more players, there’s more depth these days where it was probably in 1994 where there was six or seven of us playing overseas at the time. In Europe now you’ve got probably 18 guys playing. It is easier to break into different leagues now because you are accepted.
Note: Featured image John Harkes during coaching career, photo Hayden Schiff, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
