Desmond Armstrong

A defender who played 81 full internationals for the United States between 1987 and 1994, including four games in the United States’ landmark victory in the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Armstrong played in all three games for the United States at the 1988 Olympic Games in Korea, in a team that included seven other future Hall of Famers. He then suffered a broken leg while playing for the Baltimore Bays of the Major Indoor Soccer League in 1989, and missed all but one of the United States’ World Cup qualifiers that year. However, he was healthy in time for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where he started all three of the United States’ games, against Czechoslovakia, Italy and Austria.

He then hit another high point at the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He played in four of the United States’ five games, including the 2-0 upset of Mexico in the semifinals that was a key step in the United States’ drive toward the first international championship that it had ever won.

Armstrong played three more years in the U.S. national team after 1991, including the 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but missed the 1994 World Cup. He played in a number of American professional leagues, including the MISL, the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the American Professional Soccer League and the USISL.

Inducted in 2012.