Can History Repeat Itself? England Versus the USA 1950 Remembered

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For in one of the greatest coincidences in the wealthy annals of soccer history, the two teams meet in their 1st competitive match because the USA defeated England just about 60 years ago to the day. The game was a wakeup call for the English team, which had the feeling that all they required to do was to turn up and win the game, and ultimately the World Cup would fall into their hands. Following all facts and statistics had been on their side as English, self crowned "Kings of Football",, had won 23 3 of their last 30 matches, even though the US had lost their last seven and against weak opposition, conceding no much less than 45 objectives in the procedure.

The England team on paper looked highly strong and most likely to sweep the USA aside by a record score. So complacent were they, that the rested their undoubted superstar, master dribbler Stanley Matthews on the bench, with no substitutes allowed in those days. Without Matthews, England's team had been nonetheless no slouches, containing stars of the ears such as Billy Wright, Tom Finney, Stan Mortenson and a young full back referred to as Alf Ramsey, who went on to manage the Planet Cup winning England team in 1966. On the other hand the USA was filled by a group of enthusiastic amateurs as interest in soccer in the US was pretty restricted, and most of the team members had been expatriates from Europe, with one or two of them nonetheless not holding full US Citizenship, ( or so it was claimed). Prior to they took the field for this historic encounter the USA squad had managed to train together just as soon as, so to say that they were unprepared to make soccer history would be a bit of an understatement.

So the biggest worry that have to have been on England manager Walter Winterbottom's mind was who would be maintain counting of the score as the history creating encounter kicked off on the 29th June 1950 in the at Estádi Independência in the town of Belo Horizonte in a pleasant summer evening.

It absolutely looked that way as England began to apply pressure on the US aim from the kick off, and the largely neutral crowd sat back awaiting the goal feast. The problem appeared that the England team also sat back as nicely, and any shots that didn't go high and wider hit the posts, were handled by the US goalkeeper Frank Borghi, playing the game of his life.

As the game progressed, and England's efforts seemed to be obtaining a lot more and extra desperate, the US team began to grow in confidence, and even launched the occasional counter attack.

The crowd began to get behind the USA team who had been putting up a particularly brave struggle, and went wild n the thirty-seventh minute, when the US's star player Walter Bahr attempted a speculative lengthy shot which the England keeper Bert Williams obviously taken by surprise, could only palm out to Joe Gaetjens who headed it straight back into the net. England were stunned as they went in for half time, and as they came out for the second half, expectations had been that that they would push the USA team aside and gain the victory that was so rightly theirs against this team of upstarts. Then again they continued to fall over their own feet, and a clear lack of team play and understanding saw them continue to waste probabilities till time ran out for them not just for this game, but same say or English football, at least at national level.

Despite the fact that interest in the soccer and the Planet Cup was nowhere near the level that it is nowadays, the result sent shock waves around the globe, and England and the other top level international teams learned a useful lesson that day, Never ever treat the opposition team lightly!