Oh, by the way, as perhaps a dire forewarning to you Englishmen out there....an odious portent of what may befall you this coming Saturday...recall that if the United States beats England on Saturday, it will be the United States beating England AGAIN in World Cup Competition.....
In the 1950 World Cup Finals in Brazil, the United States defeated England 1–0 in a group match in what became known as the Miracle on Grass.
At the time, the English considered themselves the "Kings of Football", with a post-war record of 23 wins, 4 losses, and 3 draws. Conversely, the Americans had lost their last seven international matches (including the 1934 World Cup and 1948 Summer Olympics) by the combined score of 45–2. The odds were 3–1 the English would win the Cup, and 500–1 for the U.S.
England had Stanley Matthews available, whom they considered the best player in the world at the time, but he had not played with the English team in the three international matches prior to the World Cup (in fact, he had joined the team late, having been touring Canada as part of another group of English internationals). As such, the selection committee (consisting of one man, Arthur Drewry, then president of the English/Wales Football League and later the president of FIFA), opted to stay with the team that had just defeated Chile. As there were no substitutes allowed in those days, Matthews watched the game with the other reserves.
Meanwhile, the American team consisted of semi-professional players, most of whom had other jobs to support their families. Walter Bahr was a high school teacher, and others worked as mail carriers or dishwashers. Not only that, but the team had been hastily assembled, and had only been able to scrimmage all together once, and that was the day before they left for Brazil, which happened to be against the touring English team featuring Matthews. Three players, Joe Maca, Ed McIlvenny, and Joe Gaetjens, were added to the roster just prior to that game. "We have no chance," recently-appointed coach Bill Jeffrey told the press.
England and the U.S. were in Group 2 of the first round robin, along with Spain and Chile.
The U.S. lost their next match 5–2, versus Chile, ending their 1950 World Cup run with a First Round record of 1-0-2. They would not qualify for the World Cup again until 1990.
Newspaper headlines in most World Cup nations trumpeted the shocking upset, except in the United States and England.
There was only one American journalist even at the World Cup: Dent McSkimming of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who could not get the newspaper to pay for the trip, and had taken time off of work to cover the event. His report of the match was the only one to appear in any major American newspaper.
In England, newspapers at the time were generally small, and only had a single page devoted to sports. Because the English cricket team happened to suffer their first-ever defeat to the West Indies the very same day, that was the major story in most publications. However, in publications that did report the World Cup match, so unexpected was the result that it was presumed that the 1-0 scoreline was a typing error and so it was reported that England had won on a scoreline of 10-0 or 10–1.
England's blue uniform, which had made its debut in this match, was never worn again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_v_ ... tes_(1950)