Damn, I'm old. I remember 94, and how inexplicably excited I was for a sport which I had hitherto only seen on TV if I tuned in to the Spanish-language broadcasts of the Mexican league. I had never played soccer at all, and never knew anyone who was a big fan, so it didn't make sense why I was excited that the WC was coming to America.
I think what had always fascinated me about soccer was its global appeal, and how numerous countries had highly competitive leagues such that there were legendary teams in multiple countries. I thought, how cool would it be if other countries had teams as good as the Lakers, the Yankees, the Cowboys, and that these international teams actually squared up and played each other?
I was in college during the 94 Cup, and remembered that none of my dorm mates had any clue what the World Cup even was.
Then - in the opening match, Bolivia and Germany played to an extraordinarily dull 1-0 result where, IIRC, the lone goal wasn't even a spectacular golazo - it was a simple thing where the goalie got out of position and then one of the opposing players simply passed it into the goal. The equivalent of introducing the NFL to international fan by watching the Browns and Jaguars play a 9-3 field goal fest.