The 1994 World Cup Final and the City It Changed

A scoreless final at the Rose Bowl, a shootout and 94,000 fans. Thirty-two years later, the 1994 World Cup is still shaping how Los Angeles thinks about big events.

By Richard Awni, Senior Olympic and Sports Correspondent

Family First News Desk  |  Where Sports and Education Go Hand in Hand

The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, site of the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final between Brazil and Italy.

Wide view of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, host stadium for the 1994 World Cup Final

On July 17, 1994, Brazil and Italy met in the final of the World Cup at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. After 120 minutes with no goals, the first World Cup final ever decided by a penalty shootout went to Brazil, 3-2. More than 94,000 people watched.

It was not a classic by the usual measures. It was a final decided by one missed kick. But that was never the whole story of the 1994 tournament.

The real story is what the tournament did for the city around it.

The 1994 World Cup was the first men’s World Cup held in the United States. Many outside the country doubted that Americans would fill stadiums for soccer. They did, in Los Angeles and across the country. The tournament helped prove the case for a professional league, and Major League Soccer began play in 1996.

Los Angeles took something else from it. The Rose Bowl and the surrounding region showed that Southern California could host an event of global scale, with a diverse and passionate audience, using a stadium it already had.

That experience matters now. LA28 has chosen to build its Games around existing venues, including the Rose Bowl, which is on the Olympic venue list. A generation of fans and organizers learned in 1994 that Southern California is a place where the world’s biggest sporting events work.

The 1994 World Cup final will always be remembered for a shootout. Its longer legacy is a city that learned it could welcome the world, and a country that learned it could love the game.

Disclosure: Family First Foundation publishes Family First News Desk and runs youth sports and education programs in Los Angeles. Richard Awni is the Foundation’s founder.