With Americans thronging bars and stadiums to watch the United States play Belgium yesterday, it’s hard to remember how different the American soccer landscape looked in 1999. One could barely find soccer on television, most MLS teams played in cavernous NFL stadiums, and the U.S. men’s team had just been bombed out of the 1998 World Cup in France, winless and scoring only one goal.

If the United States wanted to compete internationally, a bold, new vision for soccer in America was a necessity. So in 1999, U.S. Soccer invited the best American youth players to join a residential academy for the under-17 men’s team in Bradenton, Florida. Modeled after European youth academies, the team would train year-round to prepare for the U-17 World Cup in Australia that year.

The inaugural Bradenton class included future U.S. national team players Kyle Beckerman, Oguchi Onyewu, and Bobby Convey. Its most famous alumnus remains Landon Donovan, who won the Golden Ball at the U-17 World Cup, prompting an ill-fated transfer to German power Bayer Leverkusen.

But few would have predicted that, of all the talent in that 1999 cohort, DaMarcus Beasley would make the greatest contribution to American soccer, playing in four consecutive World Cups.

The diminutive left-footed winger arrived on the world stage at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. On a team anchored by American stalwarts Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride, and Eddie Pope, Bruce Arena unleashed the barely legal Beasley and Donovan on the flanks, shocking defenses with their speed, skill, and tenacity. Like two Energizer Bunnies, they just kept going.