ALEXI LALAS INTERVIEW: Scoring against England in 1993 was 'ORGASMIC'
Scoring against England in famous 1993 win was ‘ORGASMIC’, but nothing could have prepared ALEXI LALAS for bringing David Beckham to LA Galaxy… who reveals why he’ll always be a rock star at heart
- Lalas broke hearts when he knocked England out of 1994 World Cup qualifiers
- The 53-year-old shared his belief that signing Beckham changed MLS forever
- Commentator already has his sights set on North America’s 2026 World Cup
‘It’s very orgasmic. The celebration was just an explosion, and I often say a climax of incredible emotion. There’s that moment when you have no control and you do black out.’
Alexi Lalas is describing his reaction to scoring the goal that humbled England and changed his life 30 years ago.
June 9, 1993. A beleaguered Graham Taylor led England into the US Cup already under huge pressure amid a faltering World Cup campaign that was captured so agonisingly by Channel Four’s The Impossible Job documentary.
No-one remembers that England drew with Brazil and lost narrowly to Germany in America, or the fact that Paul Ince became England’s first black captain against the US.
The abiding memory is a shocking 2-0 defeat in Foxboro Stadium and the flame-haired substitute with the goatee cavorting around the pitch after heading the second goal.
Alexi Lalas provided England with a humbling to remember when he scored the winning goal against Graham Taylor’s side in 1993
After retiring, Lalas became president of the Los Angeles Galaxy for two turbulent years
Now a pundit for FOX Sports, the 53-year-old remains committed to football – and his music
The hair has lost some of its colour over the last three decades but the same cannot be said of Lalas, the aspiring rock star whose music has played continuously in the background during a football career that led to him giving a standout performance as the US reached the last 16 of the World Cup on home soil a year later, becoming the first American to play in Serie A with Padova and, of course, being the man who welcomed David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy.
As Lalas speaks at his home in LA, two guitars hang on the wall either side of the stars and stripes.
First off, let’s go back to Boston, birthplace of the American Revolution and the scene of that seismic result against England.
‘Oh my god yeah. The romance and the nostalgia and the history obviously, it fed into the patriotic notion. It just all came together on that day,’ says Lalas, a Michigan native whose mother is an American poet and his father a Greek professor.
‘I grew up in the suburbs of America in the 70s and 80s and the influence – whether it was the coaches I had or going to the Pontiac Silverdome to watch Trevor Francis play for the Detroit Express – for the most part was English.
‘We looked at England as this behemoth. We knew we would be in the underdog position and it was a role we were very good at playing.
‘Ian Wright was a guy our coach would take us to the bar and make us watch. I couldn’t fathom being a part of all that. I was just psyched to get on the field.’
Lalas had just turned 23 and had never played professionally. ‘People forget that even when I stepped on the field in the summer of ’94 for the World Cup, I had never been on the books of a club team.
‘The US were essentially a self-contained club going around playing international games.
‘We were in this incredible, unique situation where we were training and living in Mission Viejo, Southern California. It was a reality show existence where you came in for a week and either you made it or you didn’t. You survived and continued on, or you went home. At that point I was trying to stick around.’
As England prepare to meet Malta in a Euro 2024 qualifier on Friday, it’s worth remembering that the US were given very little chance of upsetting the odds.
When Lalas was selected for USMNT in 1993, he didn’t have a contract with a professional team
The Greek-American defender became the first US player to feature in Seria A with 1994 move
But Thomas Dooley headed the hosts in front before half-time and suddenly England’s fragile confidence crumbled.
‘When Thomas puts it in, now it’s a different story,’ recalls Lalas. ‘I was on the bench and we’re all looking around. Everyone starts to think, “this might be it, this might be that moment when the soccer gods smile upon you”.
‘You saw the switch in that moment and on the other side the England team saying, “s**t here we go again!” I saw the documentary years later and some of the internal strife that was going on, but I certainly didn’t know the types of pressure they were under.
‘The success we had a year later in the World Cup absolutely stemmed from that result against England. We had something tangible. It wasn’t a fairy tale. It wasn’t a Ted Lasso speech. It wasn’t some illusion or dream. It was real. It was a pretty powerful piece to put in your pocket.’
Lalas replaced Dooley in the second half and got above England goalkeeper Chris Woods to head the second goal from a Tab Ramos corner three minutes later.
‘This is your moment. You feel it, you sense it, you smell it, you crave it,’ says the 6ft 3in defender who came on to play as a defensive midfielder that day. ‘It skimmed off my head. I didn’t register it had gone in until I landed.
‘I don’t know what England’s tactical plan was for marking but I guarantee they’d never heard of me. But they couldn’t miss me, that’s for sure.
‘I can’t believe it was 30 years ago. From a personal perspective, it was a huge moment and changed the trajectory of my pathway towards the ’94 World Cup in terms of the credibility I had within the group.
‘In that moment the machine went to work. Whether it was the attention on the red-head guy with the goatee running around scoring goals and sliding on his knees, and playing music and doing all that kind of stuff, the curiosity factor was ratcheted up a notch and my life started to change.
‘I saw the impact of optics and costume and character and personality that I had cultivated even at that time. Obviously over the next year I did even more in terms of the way I looked and how I could benefit from that.
‘I grew up in the 70s and 80s and MTV was a huge influence. Music was a huge influence. Seeing your aesthetic was important. I always considered myself a performer in the entertainment industry and I still do. I still work in television. I would walk on a field which is the same as a stage, I would play in front of a crowd which is an audience, I would put on my uniform which is the same thing as putting on a costume.
‘I recognised that I could harness the way I looked and use it to my advantage in different ways.
‘I cleaned up on the outside. I’m still a mess on the inside, but that image I portrayed so many years later standing there in a suit and tie was by design.
‘I was comfortable in it. I was never playing something I wasn’t comfortable in. But we all inhabit different types of costumes and personas along the way to suit our needs or the situation.’
Despite being fired in 2008, Lalas says he ‘doesn’t regret’ his spell at the helm of the LA team
Enticing David Beckham (centre right) to MLS football fundamentally changed the league
We have now moved on 14 years to the image of a sharper looking Lalas in a suit, presenting Beckham with his LA Galaxy jersey before the watching world in 2007. Just like the ’94 World Cup, it was a pivotal moment in the history of US soccer and once again Lalas was centre stage.
It also presented a huge challenge for the Galaxy’s president and general manager who was 35 when he took on the job and lasted two years.
‘Ultimately I got fired in 2008 but I don’t regret any of it,’ Lalas insists. ‘I was very young and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. But I remain incredibly proud of the time I spent at the Galaxy.
‘We dealt with something that nobody has ever dealt with, which was the hurricane of David Beckham.
‘There was collateral damage but we learned and I learned. We were trying to do something big and bold. The decision to sign David Beckham – I mean, look, you pay him a lot of money and you don’t need me to tell you that helps.
‘We literally had to change the rules in MLS in order to accommodate a signing like him. We had to do that and then we had to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse, and we did.
‘But there is a whole machine that is David Beckham. It fundamentally changed the league. Obviously, it changed the Galaxy. We were signing one of the most famous people in the world and all the baggage that comes with that, to be honest.
‘Initially, as great as it was, it produced a lot of challenges for us. The balance of the Galaxy versus the Beckham machine was often out of whack.
‘It took a while for it to get in a more balanced position because what is better for David Beckham the brand isn’t always good for LA Galaxy the brand.
‘There are also practical realities when it comes to the disparity in pay. You’ve got a guy who is making tens of millions of dollars and has all of these incredible advantages, and a guy who is struggling to pay for his apartment.
‘There are the internal dynamics of a locker-room that David had to negotiate, and our coaching staff and all the players had to figure out who is this guy?
‘Along the way, I made mistakes and that balance needed to be shifted. It just took time to get to that place.’
So did Beckham ever come to see a gig?
‘He had much bigger fish to fry!’ laughs Lalas who released his eighth solo album last year.
‘To this day I still record music and write and perform and do all the different stuff.
‘I keep doing it for all three of my fans, including my mum. I’ve got to make sure they’re satisfied.
‘It’s something I love to do and something I’m good at and something that I will never stop. I know I was a better soccer player for having the music in my life. While I don’t kick the ball anymore, music is something that never goes away.’
Now 53 and a father of an 18-year-old daughter and a 15-year old son, Lalas can look back on a colourful career and forward to another World Cup in North America in 2026 when he is set to be in the commentary booth as a voice of soccer for Fox Sports.
‘For this kid from the suburbs of Detroit to find himself scoring against England, going to a World Cup and then standing next to David Beckham, that’s a pretty cool thing to have happen and hopefully I’m not done,’ he says.
‘Timing is huge in Iife. Whether it’s the ’94 World Cup happening in the US or all the other things, you make your own luck. I’ve certainly at times been in a situation where you fake it til you make it.
‘Don’t get me wrong. I can be a son of a bitch. I’m incredibly competitive and I have an arrogance about me that I have learned to harness and use, and that manifests in a belief in myself that I can do things that people say I can’t.
The former New England Revolution player has worked with FOX Sports for just under 10 years
In May, Lalas took part in the official brand launch for North America’s 2026 World Cup
‘I’m as fallible as anybody else but it’s been a fun ride so far and I don’t want it to end.
‘Men’s, women’s, co-ed (mixed), naked football, it doesn’t matter. If people are kicking a ball, I’m there and I will talk about it. I love this game. I love all the entertainment and the drama and the theatre and the romance.
‘I love the fact that in three years from now there is a young man whose life is going to change in the same way that my life changed, and that person will live the power of a World Cup.
‘Who knows? Maybe in the next couple of years we will see a moment like mine against England where it was the coming out party, which it really was.
‘If you can kick on and do it at the World Cup then your life will never be the same, and I’m here to attest to that.’
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