GAETJENS STUNS ENGLAND

 USA coach, Bill Jeffrey,. knew his eam hardly had a hope in hell, knowing that they were due to play the might of England in the 1950 World Cup. England had won their first group match against Chile 2-0 (goals from Mortenson and Mannion) and the Americans had lost to Spain 1-3.

Brazil was host to the best nations in the World and their climate was never going to suit everyone, especially the English. It was HOT! The English were finsing it hard to acclimatise and quite frankly, the FA was not used to preparation having not entered a World Cup before....that is another story!

Stanley Matthews was left on the bench for this opener, apparently behing Jimmy Mullen and Tom Finney in the "pecking order". Team selector Arthur Drewry was confident that the FA's selection was the correct one, with players such as Stan Mortensen, Alf Ramsey and Wilf Mannion to back up Jimmy and Tom in the English line up in Belo Horizonte. This was their second game but they were on their way home.

In the 38th minute the USA's Haiti born striker Joe Gaetjens headed home to score the only goal of the match! It was a huge shock for the "favourites" but it did not seem to upset the fans back home. This was the first time the English FA had deigned to enter this World event and the huge shock did not register miuch back in "blighty". The Guardian newspaper reported on its page 10, that "An Argentine born footballer called Gaetjens scored with a good shot from twenty yards". 

Another British paper published the result as 10-1 to England, assuming the score they had been given was wrong and a misprint. England lost the next match against Spain and were on their way home! Having worn blue shirts, the players vowed never to wear that colour shirt again!

It was the 37th minute that would change the course of history. Then, Walter Bahr took a shot from outside the box, and as the English goalkeeper moved to try and stop it, a missile came out of nowhere. That missile was the head of Joe Gaetjens, who dove from the penalty spot to redirect the ball just to the left of the keeper and into the back of the net. It was 1-0 to the USA, and the crowd was stunned.

Here are the culprits...do you remember any of these? Back row: Alf Ramsey, John Aston, Roy Bentley, Laurie Hughes, Billy Wright (won won 105 England caps), Bert Williams in goal.

Front: Jimmy Mullen, Tom Finney, Stan Mortenson, Wilf Mannion, Jimmy Dickinson
 Note no Stanley Matthews!!