Back then, Roy Wegerle was easy to pick out among the kids playing soccer on the dusty fields of Pretoria.
As one of the first cracks appeared in apartheid, he was a white playing what was then a game for blacks in South Africa.Almost 20 years have passed, and things have changed profoundly, for Wegerle and South Africa.
Wegerle is now a U.S. citizen and playing soccer for his adopted country. He is expected to be one of the Americans' top scoring threats when they begin World Cup play against Switzerland outside Detroit on June 18.
On Monday, he went through drills on the lush green field at the team's training center. He recalled his start in the game that would shape his life, a time when some whites did not approve of a white youngster playing with the blacks.
"The apartheid system was just beginning to crumble when I was a kid," he said. "It was a time when there was so much pressure on South Africa to break the apartheid system, and it came through sport. Soccer was the game of the black man in Africa, and it provided a first step toward breaking the system.
"I think it (soccer) was the first time that blacks and whites were allowed to be together. It was frowned upon by some whites. Then as time went on, it was allowed in other sports."
He remembered the games in places like Soweto, a long, long way from the comforts of Mission Viejo.
"There was no grass, nothing but dirt," he said. "The black kids were very excited just to be allowed to play on the same field with whites.
"It was not a political thing as far as we were concerned. Whether we were black or white, sport is sport and we were all just happy to be playing."
Wegerle said he was relieved the new democracy in South Africa came about peacefully.
"It was something that badly needed to be done," he said. "I am thankful that there was a peaceful solution because I have my parents, Ernest and Lorna, and two brothers (Geoff and Martin) still there. So I am particularly thankful that there were no personal family tragedies."
Wegerle, 30, left South Africa when he was 18, and has not been back in years. He played for the University of South Florida, then followed in the path of two older brothers, Steve and Geoff, who played in the North American Soccer League. He became an American citizen in 1992.
After a stint with the NASL's Tampa Bay Rowdies and then the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League, Wegerle moved to England and has been playing there since.