Miracle on Grass

On an early summer day, 66 years ago today, a World Cup soccer match was played in Brazil between a team, which History.com reports was titled the “King of Football”, which was the team from England and a team from the United States. If England was the King of Football, the United States team was probably lower than a pawn. The US team would have barely registered on the soccer meter. However, the U.S. would go on to defeat England that day, 1 to 0, in what, even today, is referred to as one of the biggest upsets in soccer history. It is still considered by many to be the biggest victory in the U.S. National team’s history. When receiving the wire report of the US victory, the New York Times thought the report a hoax and so failed to report this one large event in American soccer. (To justify their own incompetence, a 2009 NY Times article on the event referenced that “many newspapers” thought the wire report was a hoax.)  Soccer has not been the most beloved of American sports, it is fourth or lower.  Even golf is probably more highly thought of.  

England midfielder between to US Players, Bahr is on the right

The English team came into the match with odds of 3-1 to win the 1950 World Cup. England entered the match with a record of 23 wins, 4 losses, and 3 draws. With its 3-1 odds, one historian has noted that England was probably one of the top two favorites, the other favorite being the host country, Brazil. The United States had odds of 500-1, which a FIFA report says “was generous.” It had lost all seven of the matches they had played in international competition. Unlike the 1980 miracle on ice, when the US Olympic hockey team won a gold medal, this soccer team would win but this one match. The US was placed in group 2 with England, Spain and Chile. They lost the first game to Spain, and after the win against England would lose to Chile. Yet, that should not dull the glory of their achievement. Not unlike today, interest in soccer was well behind that of baseball, basketball and our own American brand of football. The U.S. had not qualified for a World Cup since 1934. Perhaps being the dictionary definition of futility, the U.S. national team would not again qualify for the World Cup until 1990. Of course, as it stands they have yet to win a World Cup. On the other hand, America has its Super Bowl, and to date all teams that have won have been from the United States. Who needs international competition when we have the Super Bowl?

Manchester, England News Article of 30 June

While the victory was sweet, and not as grand as the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, they do have some similarities—the players. Like the Soviet Union hockey, which was a state sponsored team and in all sense of the word a professional team, the English team was comprised of professional players, from local domestic leagues. The Olympic hockey team in 1980 was primarily comprised of college players or those just out of college. No pro players allowed. The U.S. 1950 soccer team was comprised of recent immigrants and amateurs, although one report says there were some semi-professionals on the US squad. The US team to play in the World Cup on that June day had been hastily assembled just days earlier. The team, according to history.com, included two mailmen, a teacher, a mill worker, and a dishwasher. Showing the snobby, chauvinistic nature of the English, the team had been described by a Belfast news article, as reported in history.com, as being “a band of no-hopers drawn from many lands.” Apparently, the Belfast paper had a similar view of immigrants as does Donald Trump.

Gaetjeans scores winning goal as England's goalie looks back

The Americans were on the defensive most of the game and it was the play of the goalie who had kept them in the game with the high powered, offensive English juggernaut. But, as you know, England did not score a goal. The only goal came 37 minutes into the first half on one of the few American drives when US player Joey Gaetjens redirected the 25 yard shot of Walter Bahr into the opposition goal. Of course, good games have controversy, and in this game an English midfielder was charging to the US goal only to be tackled from behind by a US player of Italian descent. The US player was not thrown out, which some attribute to the Italian referee. The penalty kick went over the US goal. Walter Bahr said he has never seen a tackle like that in (American) football. As one story reports, Bahr, notes that the win was “no fluke. The English were a very good team. We played our hearts out that day. We were better than them that day.” Before the US 1980 hockey team took to the ice against the Soviet Union, the US coach Herb Brooks said "Great moments are born from great opportunity, and that's what you have here tonight, boys. That's what you've earned here tonight. One game; if we played them ten times, they might win nine. But not this game, not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight we stay with them, and we shut them down because we can. Tonight, we are the greatest hockey team in the world.” The 1950 soccer team could have played the Brits 20 times, and they might have lost 19, but this one game they won. The group most pleased were the thousands of Brazlian fans that attended, knowing that the American win made it more difficult for England, the other co-favorite.

1950 US Soccer Team at World Cup

While Brazil fans were cheering for the US, Gaetjeans was not even a naturalized citizen of the US.  However, he had declared intent to become a US citizen, under FIFA rules he was allowed to play for the US squad. He never became a US citizen, and disappeared in 1963. He had returned to Haiti and some speculate he was murdered due to family opposition to the then Haitian dictator Francois Duvalier. Bahr, who was teaching junior high school at the time, gave up a few weeks’ worth of pay to join the US squad. At the time the nation as a whole paid little attention to the victory over the strong English team. Part of the reason was the North Korean advance into South Korea about the same time. More likely it is that soccer was not just on the radar of most Americans.  The American team, after its only win in the 1050 World Cup would go home and be ignored. England failed to advance as well, and would return east to their home country more humbled than they had entered the game. Although as recently as two years ago, news articles in England say the humiliating defeat should never have been left to stand.  The 1950 US National Soccer team had just happened to best a much better team from England, on that summer day. The miracle on grass may not be as prominent as the one on ice that occurred 30 years later, but to the men who played, it may have been their highest moment in their soccer career.