The US beat England in the 1950 men’s FIFA World Cup. What are its chances in 2022?
The first and last time the US beat England in the men’s World Cup was more than 70 years ago.
In one of the greatest upsets in sporting history, the American make-shift squad, including teachers, grave diggers, and mail carriers, beat England’s better trained team when they played each other for the first time at the 1950 Brazil World Cup, which also marked England’s first -ever participation in the FIFA tournament.
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Joe Gaetjens, a Haitian who was studying accounting at Columbia University and working as a dishwasher in Harlem, scored the goal that lifted the USA over England 1-0.
As the two teams—one seasoned and another less experienced—go head-to-head at Doha’s Al Bayt Stadium today (Nov. 25), the odds are stacked against the US, as per FiveThirtyEight’s prediction. The American team comes from a 1-1 draw with Wales, while England is fresh out of soundly defeating Iran 6-2.
Regardless, the self-proclaimed “underdog” team is hoping to repeat history. With Iran scoring a 2-0 victory against Wales earlier today, the US can’t afford to lose if it aims to proceed to the next stage of the tournament, which will ultimately be determined in its match against Iran on Tuesday.
Quotable: The US men’s soccer team wants to win
“We don’t look at the odds and we’re not at the World Cup just to make up the numbers. We go, we give it everything in every game we play, we make America proud. Wherever that takes us we have to wait and see.” —US midfielder Christian Pulisic to Britain’s Daily Mirror.
US men’s national soccer team’s World Cup journey, by the digits
9: Consecutive World Cups the US didn’t qualify for between 1950 and 1990 because it lacked financial and organizational power and prowess.
2-1: Trinidad and Tobago’s win versus the US in 2017, which meant the American team didn’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
0: times the US has won the World Cup. More than 20 years ago, in 2002, they qualified for the quarter finals—their best performance in the tournament to date.
1988: The year the US soccer federation announced it would offer full-time contracts for national team players so that they could make a living playing the game.
10: Years since the US and England last faced off, at the 2012 World Cup in South Africa. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
25 years and 175 days: Average age of US team members, making it the second youngest team to qualify for the World Cup after Ghana.
1: World Cup veteran on the US team’s roster—DeAndre Yedlin who played in 2014. The rest are all fresh blood.
2026: the year the US national team is guaranteed a spot in the World Cup in because it is co-hosting along with Canada and Mexico
All eyes on the US soccer team
The win against England in 1950 didn’t draw much applause back home. The sport wasn’t as popular as baseball and American football, and the papers were focused on covering the war in Korea. Soccer “just wasn’t on the radar,” Geoffrey Douglas, the author of the 1996 book The Game of Their Lives, which chronicled the story of the match and those who participated in it, told Time magazine.
But things have changed since. The team is much better funded. And it has some star players to boast of: Winger Christian Pulisic, now 24, was the youngest-ever captain at 20. In 2019, he signed a $73 billion deal with Chelsea Football Cup. He’s played 50 matches and scored 20 goals for the US.
This year, the marketing push has been massive—especially among Gen Z and those with ties to Latin America, where soccer is much more popular. Since last year, the federation has been pushing the bilingual chant “Only Forward/Solo Pa’lante”. In October, it unveiled capsule collections in collaboration with five innovative designers—Hidden NY, Awake NY, KidSuper, Jason Scott and VOYCENOW–to drum up excitement among the fanbase. Fictional football coach Ted Lasso, from the namesake Apple TV+ series, has been cheering the players on via billboards.
Days ahead of the Qatar World Cup starting, a Frito-Lays ad had David Beckham and Peyton Manning arguing about “football” versus “soccer.” (In Qatar, Americans’ chant “it’s called soccer!” isn’t going down too well.)
Watch out for England
Popularly called The Three Lions (based on the England team’s crest featuring, well, three lions), the team is coming to the World Cup like a wounded lion out for blood. Last year, Italy beat England in penalties during the European Championship finals.
The team is chock-full of internationally experienced players. Striker Harry Kane, the team’s captain and 2018 World Cup’s top goalscorer, is expected to play after suffering an ankle injury against Iran.
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