Former Sporting KC goalkeeper recalls playing one day after 9/11 attacks in new podcast

Standing alongside his teammates in the middle of a packed stadium in Lima, Peru, Tony Meola wanted to be anywhere else.

It was September 12, 2001, and Meola’s Kansas City Wizards, now Sporting Kansas City, had a game scheduled against Peruvian team Sporting Cristal in a Copa Merconorte group-stage match.

Kickoff was a little over 24 hours after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center that brought life in the United States to a grinding halt.

That is, except for Meola and the Wizards, who became the first American sports team to play a competitive game afterward.

“It is the biggest regret that I’ve had in my career,” Meola told The Star Thursday.

It’s been 20 years since that game, and it’s something Meola has never really spoken about.

That is, until now.

Partnering with SiriusXM Satellite Radio, where he co-hosts the soccer show Counter Attack on SiriusXM FC, Meola recorded and published a podcast in late August as part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast series ‘9/11 & Sports: 20 Years Later.’

Meola was joined by former Wizards teammates Peter Vermes (now Sporting KC’s head coach), Kerry Zavagnin (a Vermes assistant with SKC) and Chris Klein, as well as former goalkeeping coach Tim Mulqueen, on the 33-minute podcast to discuss their regrets about playing in that game.

The series of podcasts, which also includes podcasts from former New York Yankee Derek Jeter and former New York Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy, can be found right here.

When first approached to host the podcast, Meola wasn’t sold on the idea. Reliving the days following the attacks, and his decisions in the aftermath, is something that Meola doesn’t like to discuss.

Further discussions with New York City FC play-by-play announcer Joe Tolleson eventually turned Meola’s mind toward the idea of sharing his trepidation, with hopes that the podcast series could tell a difficult story that people were unaware of.

“There was a little bit of anxiety leading up to it,” Meola said. “Because for one I thought, ‘Do I remember everything that happened?’ or ‘Am I going to remember anything, am I going to get this right?’

“Is this going to be something where people go ‘Well, he’s got his story and we’ve got ours too, by the way.’”

Before Meola knew it, he was in the middle of a four-month process of gathering interviews and telling his story with people who experienced it all with him.

“Once we got into it, I think for me it started to become a little bit self-serving because I realized that I wasn’t the only guy feeling this,” Meola said. “And at the time I thought that maybe I was, at least in my head, you know?”

Meola never wanted to play in that game against Sporting Cristal, which the Wizards lost 2-1. He’d approached head coach Bob Ganser at the time, expressing his and his teammates’ wishes to not play the game.

Ganser understood his players’ viewpoint, but he thought the game would offer a welcome distraction.

It didn’t. In the podcast, neither Meola nor Mulqueen mince words in speculating that the decision to play was financially driven, with the Wizards organization unable to cover the cost of a fine for forfeiting the game.

Meola was Kansas City’s goalkeeper from 1999 to 2004, while Vermes a stalwart defender in front of him until 2002. But Vermes never made the journey to Peru with the rest of the team.

He arrived at Kansas City International Airport on Sept. 10 with Meola, prepared to fly to Texas before catching a connecting flight to Lima. Upon arriving at the airport, Vermes realized he’d left his passport at home. By the time his wife and father-in-law delivered it to him, the gate had closed.

Vermes’ only other option was to book another flight on Sept. 11, so he did. But that flight never left the ground.

“It’s one thing to be at home when it’s happening, but to be at an airport was a different thing. It was obviously an incredibly sad day in our country’s history,” Vermes said. “I know a lot of people that were there, so it’s obviously very close to home for me, in so many ways. But I think it’s close for everybody in this country.”

Vermes grew up in Delran Township, New Jersey, about two hours south of lower Manhattan. Meola grew up even closer to ground zero, in Kearny, N.J. He could see the twin towers as he walked to school each day.

When Meola’s podcast was released on Aug. 27, he was in a hotel in Newark for the Chicago Fire’s game against the New York Red Bulls. Meola is part of the broadcast crew for the Fire now.

“I was literally staring at the (memorial) tower the day after this pod came out,” Meola said.

“I’m just glad that the responses that I’ve gotten, it’s helped some people try to understand and use it in some way in their life. I never thought that would happen. So I’m thrilled about that, I really am.”

This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Former Sporting KC goalkeeper recalls playing one day after 9/11 attacks in new podcast."