It was built for baseball and football. But on the day that RFK Stadium is razed — and who knows when exactly that might be — it will also be remembered for its glorious history in soccer.
“My main memory is just that it’s a real soccer facility, or it always feels like a real soccer facility,” said U.S. men’s national team head coach Bob Bradley. “There’s always an excellent crowd. There’s passion in the stadium.”
Bradley and the U.S. national team opened camp at RFK on Monday ahead of Saturday’s World Cup qualifying match against Cuba, the first U.S. match at the stadium since October 2004, when an Eddie Johnson hat trick paced the United States to a 6-0 victory against Panama to close out the semifinal phase of qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
The Washington Nationals made RFK their home the following three seasons. But its return to soccer-only status helped lure the U.S. team back.
“There were those years where there was baseball stuff,” said Bradley. “I choose to throw that out and remember the other days.”
Bradley helped build RFK’s soccer legacy, having been an assistant to Bruce Arena during D.C. United’s first two years — both championship seasons — in 1996 and 1997.
RFK has also been the site of one of the U.S. team’s more historic defeats. In September 2001, the Americans suffered a 3-2 loss to Honduras in front of 54,282, mostly Hondurans. It would be hard to imagine the Cubans generating that kind of crowd — defections among the Cuban team are more likely.
Saturday’s match also marks the first return by former D.C. United head coach Peter Nowak, who left after the 2006 season and is now one of Bradley’s assistants.
Nowak adored the fact that United drew over 28,000 last weekend. But his response was curt when asked if thought United fans might miss him given the current team’s struggles.
“I’m not going to touch this subject,” said Nowak.
