Archived: Tab Ramos

 

By Dan Lauletta

NEW YORK, NY (October 15, 2003) USSoccerPlayers - On the morning of June 21, Tab Ramos' family and some friends gathered in his New Jersey living room and watched with pride as a tenacious United States national team took Germany to the brink before bowing out, 1-0 at the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup.

Ramos may have been several thousand miles from the action, but his emotions will never be far from the heart of the United States national team. For 13 years, Ramos was one of the team's cornerstones, helping to bridge the gap from anonymity to World Cup glory.

"I absolutely feel a part of that," said Ramos, who retired from the national team after helping them through the 2000 portion of World Cup Qualifying. "When we watched our team play that day against Germany, none of those things that anyone said mattered. I can remember being asked for autographs after games by people who didn't know who we were."

When Ramos first graced the national team on January 10, 1988, the team was flying well below the radar of both the American sports landscape, and the world soccer scene. The world scoffed at the thought of Americans competing at the highest level of international soccer. When Ramos retired from the side on November 17, 2000, the stars and stripes were well on their way to their fourth consecutive World Cup. Ramos' 87 games in a U.S. uniform showed the way for the national team.

"Tab is one of the pioneers for soccer in the country," said D.C. United defender Eddie Pope, who played for the United States at this year's World Cup. "Without him and all the guys who came along with him, I don't think soccer would be where it is today. That's certain."

The Early Days
Tabere Ramos was born in Uruguay in 1966. When he was 12, his father secured employment in the United States, and the family moved there, leaving South America behind for good. They settled in the burgeoning ethnic suburb of Kearny, New Jersey, where soccer, not more traditional American sports like baseball or football, was the lifeblood of the town. Ramos' father, Julian, had played professionally in Uruguay and helped shape his son's career path. Ramos never made a conscious decision to devote his life to soccer, for as long as he can remember, it was simply a given.

"I basically grew up with a ball at my feet," he said. "There wasn't a point when I realized (a pro soccer career) was going to happen. I did everything since I was 10 or 12 years old to prepare myself."

If ever an American soccer player was marked for greatness, it was Ramos. He earned his U.S. citizenship at age 15 -- the same age at which he made his international debut as a member of the U.S. under-20 team in 1981.

At St. Benedict's Prep, he earned All-America honors twice, and in 1983, was the Parade Magazine National High School Player of the Year. That same year, St Benedict's won the New Jersey Parochial B State Championship through the brilliance of Ramos who scored a New Jersey record 161 goals in four years.

Naturally, he grew up a fan of the nearby New York Cosmos, who tried to fulfill Ramos' youthful dreams by selecting the local youngster in the first round of the 1984 North American Soccer League (NASL) draft.

"I was definitely hoping to play in the NASL," Ramos said. "I don't remember watching the European Leagues or anything like that. I trained with the Cosmos for two or three months after high school. Eventually, Sunil Gulati, Paul Gardner, and some others at U.S. Soccer put their minds together and decided the best thing for me was to go to college."

So Tab Ramos left Kearny for North Carolina State, and the NASL folded soon after. After 31 goals, 104 points and three All-American honors in Raleigh, it was time for bigger things for the young American star.

For his country
Ramos was first called into the national team in 1987, but he did not get into a match until early 1988. The demise of the NASL had seemed to further bury the United States' position on soccer's totem pole. But Ramos was among a group of eager and talented youngsters whose destiny it was to begin the forward progress for the national team.

"We were a bunch of kids who never played any real games," Ramos admitted.

The real games would come in the run-up to the 1988 Summer Olympics where the seeds of future American success were laid. In Korea, two ties and a loss to the eventual champions sent the young American team home, but the promise of box scores filled with the names of Ramos, John Harkes, Paul Caligiuri, and Peter Vermes started to be realized.

By 1989, Ramos was a fixture in the U.S. lineup on the road to qualifying for Italia '90. After losing to Costa Rica in April, Ramos picked an opportune time to score his first goal for the national team. He scored the only goal of the game in St. Louis against the Ticos two weeks later to put the U.S. back on course. The U.S. did not lose a game at home during qualifying, but by late in the year, they needed a win on the road to secure their first World Cup appearance in 40 years.

On November 19, 1989, in the small city of Port of Spain, Trinidad, Ramos was in the starting lineup for the United States' crucial final World Cup qualifier against Trinidad & Tobago.

"I don't remember much about the game," he said. "There were thousands of people at the airport. It was a very hostile environment. One thing I distinctly remember was their team lining up next to us before the game, and they looked scared."

In the 30th minute, Ramos played a bad ball to defender Paul Caligiuri. Caligiuri made the best of the situation, and turned it into the most famous goal in American soccer history, giving the United States a 1-0 victory and a trip to Italy for the World Cup.

"I never thought I'd be able to participate in a World Cup," said Ramos. "Playing in Rome against Italy was my most special moment with the national team. I think we did a great job."

The young American team crashed out with three straight losses, but after a tournament opening, 5-1 drubbing to Czechoslovakia, Ramos and the gang rebounded to give the hosts the scare of a lifetime, falling 1-0 in a tense match.

"I think we all got a little respect," said Ramos of the match in Rome.

The United States may have lost all three games during the 1990 World Cup, but the experience opened the doors for players like Ramos to travel abroad for high profile competition. Ramos wound up with the Spanish club, Figueres, and eventually, Real Betis.

“Betis is a good club,” he said without hesitation. “We had seven foreigners and only three could play. There was no European community back then so it was even tougher to get in.”

In Spain, Ramos got a taste of soccer passion at its best and worst. He recalls one Betis home game played in a terrible rainstorm. Betis led 1-0 until Ramos had a backpass stop in a puddle, leading to a quick counter, and a tie score. In stoppage time, Betis sent all 11 players forward for a corner kick. Once the ball was cleared, the Betis defender slipped on the slick pitch, and the home side fell, 2-1.

“After the game we were in the locker room, and we were informed that it was too dangerous to leave the stadium because the fans were waiting outside and it was a bit rowdy.”

The fans never left, so the players and their families had to make a run for their cars.

“They were throwing stuff at me, yelling insults,” Ramos recalled. “They were saying, ‘Go back to the U.S.,’ and ‘Go play chess,’ and all of that stuff. Then the fans were great two weeks later. You’re always on trial. You can go when one game the fans are singing your name to the next game they whistle every time you touch the ball.

“Next to Real Madrid and Barcelona, Betis probably has the best following in Spain. You come out to warm up an hour before the game, and the stands are full with 35,000 fans singing and cheering.”

When Ramos arrived at Betis, the club was languishing in the second division. In 1993-94, they won the second division and earned promotion into La Liga. Coming off knee surgery in 1992, Ramos played 18 games in Spain that season while his American teammates played nearly 25 games without him in the run-up to the 1994 World Cup.

Yet, four years after the 1990 World Cup opened the door for Tab Ramos to play in Spain, it was the 1994 World Cup that would slam the door shut.

The world stage again
The United States played host to the ’94 Cup, becoming the first nation to host a World Cup without a domestic league. Major League Soccer’s birth was a promise made by the United States in order to host the Cup, but the launch of the league was still more of a theory than a reality.

“We went from going into the World Cup basically as tourists to where we had a shot at maybe upsetting somebody,” said Ramos who returned to the U.S. national team in May, a month before the start of the tournament. “Maybe we weren’t as good, but we weren’t afraid of anybody.”

Upset someone the United States did, squeaking by Columbia 2-1 on the strength of an own goal by the ill-fated Andres Escobar. The States finished the group round 1-1-1, good enough for third place in Group A. The World Cup field was still 24 in 1994, allowing the U.S. to move through to the knockout stage where they would face Brazil on July 4 in Palo Alto.

“They had most of the ball, but it was a good game by our guys,” Ramos remembered. “I came off with a couple of minutes left in the first half.”

It was not by choice that Ramos came off, but through injury. Many will argue for the rest of time that the play in which Ramos had his skull fractured was a dirty tactic designed to eliminate the United States’ most dangerous midfielder. Ramos insists otherwise.

“I don’t think he meant to hurt me,” he said of Leonardo, who came down on his head with a vicious elbow. “I have no ill feelings. Whatever happens on the field happens on the field.”

Leonardo was sent off, but still the United States yielded a 73rd-minute strike and lost 1-0 to the eventual champions.

The injury cost Ramos his position in the starting team at Betis. By the time he was declared fit, the club was rolling near the top of La Liga, and had three foreigners already contributing.

“I went to the coach and asked what the possibilities were of me playing. He was honest and told me they weren’t very good. I had two more years on my contract, and they wanted me to go to the second division.”

Having spent most of his years in Spain helping Betis earn promotion out of the second division, Ramos had no intentions of going back. Working together with Betis, Ramos landed with Tigres in Mexico. But before he got there—on January 3, 1995—Ramos would sign another deal that signaled the new hope of American soccer.

The launch of Major League Soccer was still very much in doubt when Tab Ramos, then 28, became the first player to sign on.

“I thought if I committed, everyone would commit,” Ramos said. “I’m glad I did. Some of us had already played in other countries for five or six years, and we wanted to come home. Plus, we felt a responsibility that if there was going to be a league here, we wanted to help it get off the ground.”

After Ramos signed, names like Tony Meola, Alexi Lalas, John Harkes, and Eric Wynalda followed. Soon the bulk of the national team was signed on with MLS, and the newest Division I league in the United States, led by Ramos, had a sense of credibility.

Ramos and Meola were allocated to the New York-New Jersey MetroStars, who played not far from their childhood home of Kearny. In seven seasons at Giants Stadium, Ramos showed flashes of the brilliance that earmarked him for stardom in the 1980s. He also showed flashes of wear and tear, never playing a full season due to a myriad of injuries, and enduring the lows of a franchise that has been among the most disappointing in the league to date.

“That is certainly an understatement,” he said of his MetroStars career. “We definitely wanted to accomplish more. But we had fun, and after I closed my career, I wouldn’t change it for three championships with D.C. United, or one championship with Chicago, or anything else.”

Still, the disappointments of being a MetroStar are unavoidable. Of the 10 teams remaining in MLS, only the MetroStars have failed to advance to the final of a major Cup competition. Three times they have missed the playoffs, sometimes losing out on the final spot in the most devastating fashion.

“In 1997, we had a very good team,” said Ramos, who missed the first half of that season while recovering from an ACL tear suffered during a November 1996 World Cup Qualifier. “We had Branco, Brian Bliss, Shaun Bartlett... we got hot right near the end. We were way back, and then we turned it on, but we still wound up missing the playoffs.”

The 1998 version of the MetroStars crashed out in the first round to the Columbus Crew, and the 1999 edition finished a dreadful 7-25, then the worst record in MLS history. Ramos missed all but five games that year through various injuries.

In 2000, a rejuvenated Ramos helped the MetroStars win the Eastern Division for the first time.

“It didn’t matter that year if the other team scored,” Ramos said. “We knew we would score more goals than them.”

The MetroStars promptly rolled over the Dallas Burn for the club’s first playoff series win, setting up a semifinal showdown with the Chicago Fire. The series came down to the final moments of game at Soldier Field.

Trailing 2-0, the MetroStars mounted a rally to even the match, and thought they had taken the lead, only to have the go-ahead goal pulled back for offsides. Eventually, Ante Razov won it for the Fire, breaking the hearts of the MetroStars’ faithful.

“The team showed great that day. That was definitely another disappointing moment, another season when we could have won the championship,” Ramos said.

“Kansas City won it that year without really playing soccer,” he continued, referring to the Wizards’ stifling defense that allowed them to win MLS Cup over the Fire despite being outshot 22-6.

The final call
It was Ramos’ form in 2000 with the MetroStars that found him back in the national team picture again

Ramos missed all of 1999 with the national team as well because of injuries and Bruce Arena’s infusion of youth into the team. Yet, once again, after a World Cup Qualifying campaign began with troubling results against Guatemala and Costa Rica in 2000, the call went out to the then 34-year-old.

"I was surprised when [Arena] called me, but he said he needed me and I had never played for Bruce before," Ramos said. "With the way we left the '98 team, I kind of wanted to leave on different terms than those."

Ramos scored his final national team goal in a 7-0 rout of Barbados in August and then was instrumental in the 4-0 win in the reverse fixture which sent the U.S. to the final round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying.

"If you were to ask me even eight months ago, I was just going to be happy if I could play some games for the MetroStars because I only played five games the season before. To me, coming here is a complete bonus, so that's kind of the way I took this game. I'm happy that I can play another big game," told Soccer America at the time.

It would be the last game Ramos would play with the national team hanging up his red, white, and blue jersey for the final time to spend more time with his family and concentrate on his club career with the MetroStars.

"This is a very tough decision for me because it's been so much fun being part of the development of international soccer in this country," Ramos said at the time. "Watching it grow, and being part of that growth, has been an emotional and important experience for me.

"I'm glad I was able to finish playing with the national team while I was still healthy and able to contribute."

The 1996 first-round series between the MetroStars and D.C. United is still considered by many to be the most exciting of all-time. The MetroStars won game one in a shootout at Giants Stadium, courtesy of an 11th-round conversion by a hobbled Peter Vermes as rain pelted the turf.

United evened the series with a 1-0 win at RFK Stadium, setting up the deciding game three, also in Washington.

“That was great,” Ramos said of the series in general, which drew more than 56,000 fans with only one weekend date. “Rob Johnson fouled (Marco) Etcheverry in the box with like a minute or two to go. It was an error of inexperience.”

The MetroStars had overcome a 1-0 deficit on an 86th-minute goal by Antony de Avila, but the foul in the box allowed Raul Diaz Arce to bury the game winner in the 89th.

D.C. United went on to win three of the first four MLS Cups, while the MetroStars changed coaches four times in four years searching for the right formula.

“I definitely look back at that and wonder,” said Ramos. “Who knows if D.C. would have had their dynasty. Maybe it would have been us.”

Calling it a career
Ramos announced his retirement midway through the 2002 regular season in Kearny where his American soccer career had begun nearly 20 years ago.

The MetroStars spent most of that year near the top of the Eastern Conference, well clear of the stragglers on the outside of the playoff race. But the team collapsed in the final month, playing ugly soccer and opening doors for the bottom teams to pass them. The situation came to a head on September 21 at Gillette Stadium in a listless, 3-0 loss to the New England Revolution. It was Tab Ramos’ last game.

“To be honest, I was actually happy when it was over,” he said a week later. “I hate to say stuff like that, but we didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs.”

Ramos admitted to rooting for the Chicago Fire in their game against Columbus the next day. The Fire needed a draw to keep the MetroStars out of the playoffs, and won the game outright.

It was not the way Tab Ramos wanted to go out as a soccer player, but all in all, he has few complaints.

“I’m really happy,” he said. “I had a feeling going in that I shouldn’t even play this season. People pushed me to play this season. I’m tired of it. It’s been a long time.”

For Ramos, the memories will live forever, and as he puts it, he will “always be a MetroStar.” He looks back fondly on the August night in 2000 in Dallas when Clint Mathis scored five goals to help the MetroStars clinch the Eastern Conference. And on May 4, 1996, when close to 40,000 saw the MetroStars climb out of a 3-0 hole against the Mutiny to earn the franchise’s first-ever win in a shootout; Ramos netting the deciding shootout goal.

“We’ve had some great games at Giants Stadium.”

Ramos would like to be remembered as a player who was never afraid to take on opponents to get forward. Indeed, his ability to take on defenders is what did, and does, separate him from a majority of other top American soccer players.

“He will always be remembered as one of the greatest soccer players in U.S. history,” said DC United defender Eddie Pope. “Playing against him was always difficult because he was one of the players who never gave up.”

Tab Ramos’ MLS career included 112 games, eight goals, and 36 assists. He played in three World Cups, which is three more than he imagined as a young boy at St. Benedict’s Prep. Others have played more, scored more, and raised more trophies, but few have, or ever will, leave a legacy equal to that of Tab Ramos.