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THE
BEGINNING
At the first ever World Cup in 1930, a U.S. team traveled to Uruguay
and won their first match against Belgium by three goals to nothing.
To prove this was no fluke, they then took on Paraguay and beat
them by the same score. These two wins put the U.S. in the semi-finals
where they met the mighty Argentina, and promptly lost 6-1.
There was no shame in this. Argentina were favorites to win the
cup anyway. The U.S. team went home happy, knowing that they had
proven themselves in the fast-growing world of international soccer.
Somehow, the promise of the 1930 side was never made good. To this
day, third place is the best a U.S. World Cup team has ever managed.
Four years later the U.S. were put on the first boat home after
being thrashed 7-1 by the host nation in the opening round of Italy
'34. And it got worse.
For more than half a century after that, World Cup soccer was a
barren wasteland for one U.S. team after another. Indeed, until
ill-fated defender Andres Escobar slid the ball into his own net
to give the U.S. a 2-1 win over Colombia at U.S. '94, an American
side had managed to win only one World Cup game in the entire 60
years in between.
This is the story of that game:
THE BUILD-UP
Brazil 1950. After a 12 year hiatus for World War II, The World
Cup was back.
The modern era had arrived and the world of soccer was changing
as fast as the post-war world itself. Henceforth the future of the
game would be determined by the success of its international competition.
The fourth World Cup did not start without problems. Aside from
the poor organization of the Brazilian authorities, political wrangles
and withdrawals over-shadowed the build-up and the tournament kicked
off with only 13 sides. However there was one very notable participant:
England.
In 1946 they re-joined FIFA after an absence of nearly twenty years.
This was their first World Cup. England came to Brazil followed
by a wave of expectation, eager to prove their reputation as the
"Reyes de Futbol". Brazilian fans knew that Mathews, Mortenson
and company would make it hard for the cup to stay on home soil,
and thousands came out to see if anyone could stop them.
For the one and only time the competition would be decided not by
a knock out final, but by the winners of pools I, II, III, and IV
playing off in a final group. As favorites in pool II England found
themselves facing European rivals Spain for a place in the final
four. South American second-raters Chile provided less of a threat,
while the fourth team in Pool II, the U.S., were almost universally
regarded as no-hopers.
Despite playing in two previous World Cup competitions, the U.S.
certainly didn't have the pedigree to compare with Walter Winterbottom's
peerless show dogs. The England side was a roll-call of some of
the finest soccer players the game has ever known, gathered from
the most demanding professional league in the world.
The Americans, by contrast, were largely part-timers and weekend
amateurs; paid by the game, or in kind, or in some cases, not at
all. Player for player there was no contest. Accordingly, when the
two sides met at Belo Horizonte on a cloudless day in late June,
none was expected.
Still, those familiar with the U.S. side knew that it had many strengths.
The team was anchored by a classy half-back line. On the right was
captain Ed McIlvenny, who went on to play for Manchester United
but who, in 1950, was a professional for the Philadelphia Nationals
in the old American Soccer League. On the left was McIlvenny's half-back
partner at Philadelphia, Walter Bahr.
"Ed had an incredible talent." Bahr recalls, "My
strength was ball control; his was timing and speed. We were a strong
defensive pair."
In between was burly center-back Charley Columbo, an intimidating
stopper who trod a fine-line between hard-and-fair and hard-and-foul.
Behind Columbo sat the fullbacks, Harry Keogh and Joe Macca, and
goalkeeper Frank Borghi. Like all part-timers, their day-jobs were
a mixture of the prosaic and eclectic.
The Belgian semi-pro Macca was decorating on Long Island when he
got the call to join the national side. Borghi worked for a funeral
home, Keogh delivered mail for the post office. Columbo packed meat
in a warehouse. On the soccer field he always wore the leather gloves
he used at work.
Up front on the left side were Ed and John Sousa. Not related, they
were both sons of Portuguese immigrants and both played for the
famous Massachusetts club Fall River. Opposite the two Sousas on
the right were Gino Pariani and Frank "Peewee" Wallace,
who along with Borghi and Columbo played for Simpkins Ford in St.
Louis, a side that won two U.S. Open soccer championships after
the war. Center-forward Joe Gaetjens, half-Haitian, half-Belgian,
and the only dark-skinned player on the side, made the cosmopolitan
Americans complete.
Of all these little known, unheralded players, it was Gaetjens who
was truly the boy from nowhere. He played for Brooklyn Wanderers
in New York, where he washed dishes and studied part time at Columbia
University. An awkward but inspired player, Gaetjens was capable
of producing amazing goals from seemingly impossible situations.
His unusual style worried his team-mates at first, but Bahr, who
had played against him before, provided assurance.
"He's a little nuts, a little cuckoo; you call it whatever
you want. But he makes some of the most uncanny goals you've ever
seen in your life."
THE BACKGROUND
"The American players have made remarkable progress during
their stay in Mexico. Without exaggeration we can say they have
learnt how to play soccer here."
Mexico City press report, 1949
The U.S. side hadn't always looked so good. Two years earlier the
U.S. went to the 1948 Olympics and were beaten 9-0 by the Italians.
The same year they lost to Norway 11-0 in Helsinki.
Despairing of their chances in the forthcoming World Cup the U.S.
selectors went back to the drawing board and decided to hold fresh
international trials. Try out games were organized in New York,
Boston and Los Angeles. In the summer of 1949 the successful trialists
traveled to the soccer stronghold of St. Louis, home of Walter Giesler,
the president of the US Soccer Federation and head of squad selection,
for the final selection game.
The squad Giesler chose would stay together, more or less, for the
next year. In September of 1949 they traveled to Mexico City and
took part in World Cup qualification. At the time CONCACAF did not
exist, and the Mexican FA took the lead role in organizing qualification
for Central and North American countries.
In the event, only two teams took up the Mexican invitation - the
U.S. and Cuba. Each side played four games. Mexico beat the U.S.
convincingly, 6-0 and 6-2. But the U.S. won their first game with
Cuba 5-2 and then tied the second 3-3 to go through as the second-placed
team. In the process they also earned the laurels of the Mexican
press. This team, it was said, had potential.
Still, as the tournament approached the U.S. team remained dangerously
under-prepared.
"We went to Brazil with practically zero preparation."
Bahr remembers "If we did get into condition it was while we
were in Brazil because we certainly had no training program before
we went there. It was up to each individual member to come down
in playing condition. We had one game in New York, and then three
days later we had to play Spain."
That game, played at New York's Downing Stadium, proved to be a
useful warm-up in more ways than one - the opposition were an English
League Select XI who were finishing a tour of the USA and Canada.
It was a hard fought encounter and the English, led by Newcastle
hero Jackie Milburn, scraped a 1-0 win thanks to a goal on a freekick
two minutes from time.
In the evening, with a midnight plane to Rio awaiting the American
players, the two sides dined together at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
At the dinner, Stanley Rous - later president of FIFA - congratulated
the U.S. team on a game well played, but claimed the English select
side had been exhausted by travel.
"When you get to Brazil and play the English national team,"
he intoned, "then you will find out what football is all about."
THE BIG MATCH
"The Americans came strolling into the dressing rooms at
Belo Horizonte, surely the strangest team ever to be seen at a World
Cup. Some wore Stetsons, some smoked big cigars, and some were still
in the happy, early state of hangovers."
Belfast Telegram report
While England stuttered to a 2-0 win over Chile, the U.S. opened
their World Cup program in Curitiba with a spirited performance
against fancied Spain. They took the lead midway through the first
half with a goal from John Sousa and then held it until ten minutes
from time, when they were finally overrun by three quick Spanish
goals.
Little notice was taken of the result. Spain had been expected to
start slowly.
Anyway, all eyes were on the host nation, of whom expectations were
nothing short of total. The Brazilian team remained largely behind
closed doors, force-fed vitamins by their coach Flavio Costa.
Other teams had different tales to tell. While Walter Winterbottom’s
England were experiencing culture shock, the young Americans were
taking it all in their stride. Indeed, in spite of a sleepless itinerary
of flights, training sessions and games, rumor had it the squad
was treating the whole trip as a moving fiesta.
"At that time you never had anyone baby-sitting you."
Says Bahr. "You had an eleven o’clock curfew or whatever
it might be and you did what you normally did. If you always had
a beer at night no-one told you not to. But that stuff about the
wild parties - it’s simply not true. At least half the squad
were teetotallers."
Nevertheless, the U.S. had a happy camp. Unlike Winterbottom, who
spent his days agonizing over whether or not to play the best player
in England and trying to stop his players getting sun-burn, the
U.S. coach, Bill Jeffrey was happy to let his side play it pretty
much the way they wanted.
The Scottish born Jeffrey landed the U.S. team job after a successful
stint as head coach at Penn State College. Affable and easy-going,
his style of management was in tune with his odd-ball, carefree
squad. And despite the heartening performance against Spain, Jeffery
was under no illusion about his side's chances in Pool II. "We've
got no chance" he candidly told the gentlemen of the press.
According to Bahr, Jeffrey "was very good at finding the right
combination of pairs" and had no qualms in adapting the traditional
5-3-2 line-up to match the more complex ‘WM’ formation
(or 3-2-2-3) used by the English.
"But you played according to the game," Bahr adds. "if
you were in trouble, everybody's back defending, if you were much
better than the other team, everybody's a forward."
From the moment the English kicked off at Belo Horizonte everybody
on the U.S. side was a defender. Quickly establishing midfield superiority,
England attacked in waves, only to be disjointed by Bahr and McIlvenny,
dispersed by the scurrying Macca and Keough, broken on the rock
of Columbo, and at the last rebuffed by the unflappable Borghi.
Even so, an English goal seemed inevitable. Shots rained in on goal,
hitting the woodwork or whistling narrowly into the crowd. At the
other end, during the first half hour of play, Bert Williams made
just one save - from Pariani’s speculative flier in the 20th
minute.
Then, with half-time just eight minutes away, the incredible happened.
Walter Bahr picked up the ball on the right side of the field and
ran at the English defense. As Billy Wright went to challenge, the
half-back shot at goal. Gaetjens, lingering on the edge of the box,
saw his moment, dove full length, and connected with the ball at
the penalty spot, deflecting it past the keeper and into the English
net.
"All hell's gonna break loose now." Keough said to Macca
at the restart. But the U.S. held on to the interval with their
remarkable lead in tact. "All I did was dive" Gaetjens
told his teammates at half-time. “It was Walter that kicked
it."
Afterwards, the disbelieving English claim the ball hit Gaetjens
by accident, but Bahr tells it differently. "It was a legitimate
shot from 25, maybe 28 yards out. It was going to the far post and
Bert Williams moved to his right for it. He probably would have
had it covered, but Joe, he gets over or around one of the defenders
as the shot's being taken and just gets a piece of it. Williams
is caught wrong-footed and the ball trickles in to his left."
The start of the second half saw England renew their attack. U.S.
resistance was strong. Indeed Gaetjens almost grabbed a second from
Wallace's cross, but his header flew inches over the crossbar.
"When we were one goal ahead we were still trying to get a
second goal, even though they were driving the ball down our throats.
But that was what soccer was then - get one goal and the best form
of defense was to get another."
As the game lengthened and American legs wearied the superior physical
conditioning of the English began to show itself and the specter
of the Spain defeat suddenly loomed large.
Despite their passion the U.S. needed something extra if Gaetjens'
goal was going to carry the day. They got it from the partisans
in the stands, as the 30,000 strong Belo Horizonte crowd whipped
up a frenzy of excited noise, shouting 'Mais Um' - 'One More' -
over and over again.
"The underdog always gets the crowd for them," says Bahr
"and the crowd was with us that day, more so as the game went
on. If there was any extra emotion, it was the fact that by us beating
England most likely Brazil would not have to face them in the finals."
The pro-American atmosphere was contagious. Five minutes from time
Columbo brought down Alf Ramsey with a rugby tackle on the edge
of the penalty box. "Bono, bono" the Italian ref shouted
to the burly center-half. Ramsey himself took the resulting freekick,
chipping the ball over a five-man wall and into the path of Jimmy
Mullen. Mullen headed towards goal, Borghi dove and missed it, then
somehow recovered himself to dive again and claw the ball away past
the post. Some England players thought the ball had crossed the
line and turned away to celebrate. But there was no late reprieve
for the luckless English. The referee shook his head and waved play-on.
The final whistle came soon after. As England players fell to their
knees in shattered disbelief, fans poured onto the pitch to sweep
victorious American players up in their arms. Gaetjens was lost
in a mob of delirious fans, then appeared again, joyous, bobbing
up and down in the throng. Borghi, perhaps the real hero of the
day, was a picture of triumph, carried aloft eager shoulders.
Impossibly, the U.S. had won.
THE BREAK-UP
"Nobody was at the airport when we left and nobody was there
when we came back"
Walter Bahr
The result was the biggest shock in the history of World Cup soccer,
yet hardly anyone back home would ever know about it. England were
effectively out of the World Cup, and the U.S. were the toast of
soccer. But while the rest of the world reacted with amazement,
the media silence in America was deafening.
The big dailies hardly cared. Only local press carried any reports.
(A reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dent McSkimmish, had
been the only American journalist in Brazil, and he had to pay for
his own ticket there.)
Today the USSF PR machine would go into overdrive after such a result.
Back in 1950 thoughts simply turned to the final pool II match against
Chile, where the U.S. played well and looked good for a 2-2 tie
until, in somewhat similar fashion, the Chileans ran in three late
goals. So the U.S. finished bottom of Pool II, on goal difference
from England.
The eleven heroes never came together as a team again. Another two
years would pass before the U.S. played an international fixture
- too long for the momentum gained at Belo Horizonte to be maintained.
Instead of providing the springboard to new success, the victory
quickly became just another part of the boom and bust cycle of the
U.S. game.
To be fair, the Federation did make one attempt to capitalize on
the victory by setting up a home and away fixture with England.
The English FA though, pleading scheduling difficulties, 'regretfully
declined' the offer.
FOOTNOTE
A year after scoring the most famous goal in the history of U.S.
soccer, Joe Gaetjens moved to France to play for Racing Club of
Paris. He returned to Haiti at the end of his career, where at the
age of 39 he was kidnapped and murdered by the Ton Ton Macoute.
Read
the English players perspective here...includes player interviews.
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