The Coach Who Taught by Asking, Not Telling

Picture this: It’s 1992, two years before the World Cup comes to American soil for the first time. A Serbian-born coach nicknamed“The Miracle Worker”shows up in Mission Viejo, California to build a national soccer team from scratch—except nothing’s ready. The field is a swamp. The facility isn’t finished. So what does Bora Milutinović do? He takes his players to the beach and makes them run.

For months, the men fighting for spots on the 1994 U.S. Men’s National Team ran miles along the Pacific Ocean, day after day. On the surface, it looked like punishment. But defender Alexi Lalas understood what was actually happening:“I think Bora understood, I’m only gonna get so much out of them as soccer players. But they can run. And they can run hard. And they can run forever.”It was a test of mental fortitude disguised as an endurance drill—a way to separate who could handle uncertainty from who would crack under pressure.

What made Bora different wasn’t what he told his players. It was what he didn’t. Where other coaches ruled through dominance and demands, he chose mystery. Captain John Harkes recalls asking him questions only to have Bora turn them back on him before he could even finish. He spoke in riddles and questions more than answers, challenging players to think outside the box and figure things out themselves.“Coach Bora was mysterious,”said defender Paul Caligiuri.“He basically wanted you to figure it out and believe in yourself to bring out the best in you.”

But here’s the thing about indirect coaching: it works. Bora didn’t just develop soccer skills—he unlocked something deeper in his players. He took them across the globe to play anyone, anywhere, sleeping in airports for the chance to compete.“If you don’t play against the best,”he said,“you don’t have a chance to grow.”By the time the 1994 World Cup arrived, something had shifted. The team became greater than the sum of its parts.

The real proof came later. Of the 22 players on that roster, 14 went on to become coaches themselves—spreading Bora’s philosophy forward. Alexi Lalas put it plainly:“I’m standing here today because of Bora, and what he did to me in terms of challenging me, but also having faith in me.”That impact sparked the Yes, Coach! initiative, a national program supported by the U.S. Soccer Foundation aimed at helping youth sports coaches become mentors in life, not just on the field.

As the 2026 World Cup returns to American soil this June, Summer of’94 (airing on FOX May 23rd and streaming on Fox One and Tubi starting May 26th) brings that magic back into the conversation. Was Bora a sorcerer of soccer, or simply a man who could see what others couldn’t yet see in themselves? His players are still trying to figure it out. And maybe that’s the point.