1950 THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Just after the war England had a team that was regarded as the best in the World. But Walter Winterbottom, who was the national team's first “tracksuit” manager was losing some valuable stars who never had the chance to show their skills on the world stage. Tommy Lawton was one of the reasons why Italy had been comfortably beaten in 1948 and 1949, George Hardwick, a seriously good full back and Frank Swift, the country's huge handed goalkeeper were on the decline. Whilst England was looking forward to its first World Cup in Brazil in 1950, centre half Neil Franklin was becoming a Bogota Bandit, lured to Colombia by wages of £120 a week and Lawton had joined notts County because he was offered a day job as well as his weekly wage for paying in the Third Division South! The post war team was being dismantled.

England went to Brazil expecting to do well. Despite a long journey, a dreadful experience in the Hotel Luxor on Copacabana, where food and rooms were awful and the place full of journalists, the players had no rest or comfort, but were confident of success.

When they saw a friendly match between the hosts and Mexico at the Maracana, the players were amazed at the skills performed by the South Americans. The first England match, on June 25^th, in their group was against Chile and in a dour game England won 2-0 with goals from Stan Mortenson and Wilf Mannion, but four days later, they were shocked by a defeat against the totally unfancied USA, a team made up from amateurs. Stanley Matthews was not selected, the Yanks scored a fluke and England had to beat Spain to qualify. They didn't and that was that.

Joe Gaetjens, a Haitian centre-forward, scored a header (or deflection?) after 37 minutes past Bert Williams and England had a Frank Lampard (over the line goal) score disallowed and another clear penalty ignored, as well as many chances scorned. Gaetjens,a restaurant dishwasher by trade, had a brief history with two French clubs and returned to his home country only to “disappear” in 1964 as a victim of one of Papa Doc Duvalier's Tonton Death squad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4ESTvxyqsI