MIRACLE ON THE GRASS-DOH!!!!

The Americans (Northern version) are still trying to make their way in SOCCER, challenged by the competition supplied by baseball and American Football. I don't think soccer will ever get the majority. Mind you, it would be interesting to see how many "kids" are playing soccer now compared to the other two sports; I know many American families view soccer as a safer game to play than American football, and baseball is so boring!!

I'm indulging in the US of A because it was on this day in the 1950 World Cup that Joe (Larry) Gaetjens* of the USA team scored the only goal of a qualifying tie in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, against a "star studded" England and caused one of the great upsets in World Cup history.
An Haitian, Joe Larry Gaetjens is inducted into "Les Heros de la Coupe du Monde" the French Hall of Fame. He played in Haiti, wen to New York City and after the war went to lay in France briefly. He is recorded as only having played 3 times for the USA and scoring 1 goal....doh!!!

The English had not deemed the World Cup worth playing in until 1950, when for the first time, after the War, habits had to change. So England stepped out of their "private international world" into reality and having qualified by winning the "Home Championship":
ie v Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland: scoring 14 goals in the three matches (no home and away), conceding 3 (one a game) Goals For 8 Against 15.
In Brazil the English FA got a bit of a shock.

Meanwhile, the USA played in a North American group to qualify and came second to Mexico with Cuba third. Two nations qualified.
Mexico swamped their group winning 4/4-scoring 17 and letting in 2.
The USA qualified by coming runners up in Group 9 that included Mexico and Cuba; winning 1 drawing 1 and losing 2 For 8 Against 15.

In Brazil at the Finals, England had the USA in their group with Chile and Spain. Well they beat Chile 2-0 on June 25th; in the Maracana. Scorers Mortenson and Mannion.

Match 2 was against the USA, who had lost to Spain 3-1 previously, in their first match but did score a goal. England lost 0-1 and might have blamed having to fly 300 miles across Brazil to play in the Mineiro Stadium, Belo Horizonte. Just over 10,000 witnessed one of the great World Cup upsets.
TEAM: Bert Williams, Alf Ramsey, John Aston, Billy Wright, Laurie Hughes, Jimmy Dickinson, Tom Fnney, Stan Mortenson, Roy Bentley, Wilf Mannion, Jimmy Mullen.
CAN YOU NAME THE CLUBS THEY PLAYED FOR?

The third English game was against Spain at the Maracana-a loss 0-1: 74,000+ watched this.
Flight home, tails between legs!

USA lost to Chile 2-5 in Recife. In this game, Chile's Englishman, George Robledo (who played for Newcastle) scored one of their five goals.

The World Cup "Final" was decided by a "Pool" and ended up 1.Uruguay 2.Brazil 3.Sweden 4.Spain

The USA reached the World Cup semi-finals in Italy 1934, withdrew in 1938, we know about 1950, 1954-1986 DNQ, 1990 reached Group Stage, hosted the Finals in 1994 achieved Round of 16, 1998 Group Stage,  reached the quarter-finals in Japan and South Korea 2002, in 2006 Group Stage, 2010 R16, 2014 R16 and DNQ (conveniently) in Russia 2018. In 2026 They co-host wth Canada and Mexico.

*Gaetjens went missing in "troubled times" in Haiti in 1970.