DON'T REMIND ME!!

In 1950, England eventually decided to join in the rest of the footballing World, by gracing the other nations with their presence in the World Cup. The nation that organised World Football decided to qualify for the great international tournament. Heaven knows why the stiff shirts at the FA did not do what other nations did, but by 1950, post War, England entered their first ever World Cup qualification. Inevitably, England had to make their supporters at home squirm, as they failed to beat the USA, entering their first World Cup tournament and who had lost their previous seven matches with a combined score of 2-45 goals!! Yes, on June 29th, England lost 0-1 to the "part timers", the USA in what was regarded as the "Miracle on the Grass" Stateside. A crowd of 10,000 witnessed this!

USA coach, Bill Jeffrey knew his team had a "hope in hell", as England was one of the favourites to win the Jules Rimet. England had just beaten Chile 2-0, unconvincingly!! and the Yanks had lost 1-3 to Spain. Heat could be blamed and maybe the squad had not been given time to climatise and super star, Stanley Matthews had been left on the bench, behind Jimmy Mullen and Tom Finney, both decent players but not in Stan's class. Had he started the Americans would have had to "change their game plan"! England team selector, Arthur Drewry was confident that Billy Wright, Tom Finney, Stan Mortenson, Alf Ramsey and Wilf Mannion had enough in "the tank" to beat a team of amateurs!

TEAM: GK: Bert Williams, DEF: Alf Ramsey, Billy Wright, Jack Aston, Jimmy Dickinson, Laurie Hughes, ATT: Tom Finney, Stan Mortenson, Roy Bentley, Wilf Mannion, Jimmy Mullen 

On this day 1950, in the 38th minute, USA's, Haitian born, Joe Gaetjens headed home a goal which proved to be the winner! England had travelled 300 miles north to Belo Horizonte for their second match, having beaten Chile 2-0 in Rio in the 25th of June. On that day, England had played "at altitude" and in "thin air" but goals from Mortenson and Mannion quelled the 29,000 crowd in the Maracana. The USA had lost to Spain previously 1-3 but had been up 1-0 at half time. The final Group tie was against Spain at the Maracana and it was a 0-1 defeat, watched by 74,462 people. Yes, TWO goals in three matches, So the Group was topped by Spain winning 3 out of three-6 points....England runners up with 2 points on goal "ratio" (2:2), and not qualifying. Chile beat the US 5-2.

An English newspaper, published the England score as 10-1 to England, assuming the news from abroad had been misprinted!! The goalscorer was Joe Gaetjens, a Haitian amateur. England, wearing blue shirts, also lost to Spain and went home, promising never to wear blue shirts again. 

Arthur Drewry, was he the FA man behind this "shambles"??

Drewry played a significant role in the 1950 game between England and the United States in which the English lost 1–0 to the rank outsiders in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Belo Horizonte. The English national coach, Walter Winterbottom, had wanted to rest some players for the next game against Spain, but was over-ruled by Drewry, acting as sole selector, who chose an unchanged team from their last game, a 2–0 win against Chile. Stanley Rous, Drewry's secretary at the FA, visited him and urged him to include Stanley Matthews and make other changes to the team, but Drewry was adamant in his desire to keep an unchanged team. After the loss against the United States, Drewry acquiesced to four changes to the team, but England lost their next game to Spain 1–0, and as a result were eliminated from the tournament. As chair of the FA, Drewry once proposed awarding a point in the Football League for every goal scored to encourage offensive football. This was rejected by the clubs!