Everyone loves a World Cup upset, and there's one every single tournament without fail. The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, set the bar. England were probably favourites for the tournament, and contains names which even sixty years on resonate as great, great players, even though only four of the great team remain this day. Names like Stan Mortensen, Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Dickinson, John Aston, Billy Wright, Alf Ramsey and Tom Finney are huge names in English and were in 1950. The USA on the other hand, England's opponents, were seen as a bunch of immigrant misfits, labelled as a team which had been assembled at Ellis Island, and were semi-professionals, moonlighting as footballers away from their day jobs as teachers, postmen and blue-collar factory workers.
The USA's 1-0 victory against overwhelming odds on 29 June 1950 in Belo Horizonte remains to this day a reference point for all World Cup upsets. Guaranteed, aside from a repeat fixture on 12 June in Rustenberg, there will be references to this day when the likes of North Korea and New Zealand meet Brazil and Italy respectively. If anything, USA 1-0 England is proof that regardless of the ability of the players and the footballing pedigree, come the World Cup it will eleven men from one country versus eleven men from another. Who knows what will happen?
TOMORROW: We stay in the 1950s and praise an incredible personal achievement which remains unsurpassed to this day.
Thursday, 3 June 2010
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