29 June 1950

England 0-1 USA

World Cup finals, Estadio Independencia, Belo Horizonte, BrazilScorer: Gaetjens (USA)

The 1950 World Cup tournament was another organisational shambles, with withdrawals and disqualifications leaving just 13 teams playing in four uneven qualifying groups of four, four, three, and two. Germany and Japan were excluded as they were under Allied occupation, while India were refused entry as they insisted on playing barefoot. But, crucially, for the first time the UFWC holders were invited. This was UFWC champs England's first World Cup appearance, and much was expected of the so-called 'Kings of Football'. The lowly USA had lost their last seven matches and conceded 45 goals along the way. London bookies offered odds of 500-1 against a US victory. English manager Walter Winterbottom must have felt confident - he left out the great Stanley Matthews. His side still featured the likes of Alf Ramsey, Tom Finney, Wilf Mannion, and Stan Mortenson. The US side, on the other hand, contained just one professional footballer, skipper and full-back Ed McIlvenny. Goalkeeper and D-Day veteran Frank Borghi was a funeral director, centre-back Charley Colombo was a meat packer, and Haitian-born centre-forward Joe Gaetjens (pictured above) washed dishes in a New York restaurant. Straight from the kick-off, England, wearing unfamiliar blue shirts, peppered the US goal with shots from all distances. But the USA, organised by Scottish coach Bill Jeffrey, held firm. Then, eight minutes before half-time, US half-back Walter Bahr hit a speculative shot from almost 30 yards that English keeper Bert Williams easily had covered. Enter the dish-washing centre-forward. Joe Gaetjens dived full-length to connect with the ball and deflect it past Williams into the back of the net. England fought for an equaliser for the remaining 57 minutes, but the crowd favoured the underdogs, chanting, 'One more!' When England did break through the defence, Borghi produced heroics, including three highly unconventional stops with his face. At the final whistle English players sunk to their knees, as jubilant spectators invaded the pitch. Goalscorer Gaetjens was carried from the stadium at shoulder height. The USA became the first side from the Americas to win the UFWC. It was the USA's greatest-ever international football result, but few Americans knew or cared. Only one US reporter saw the game - Dent McSkimming from the St Louis Post Dispatch. McSkimming paid for his own airfare after the paper refused to cover his expenses. 'It was like Oxford University beating the Yankees in baseball,' he wrote. Back in England, newspapers ran with black borders, with The Daily Express reporting that England had been 'outplayed by American amateurs and semipros'. The US lost the UFWC title to Chile in their next game, and neither the US nor England qualified for the next round of the World Cup. Although the England team went on to better things, the US side was broken up and never played together again. The US players deserved more credit for their amazing victory. Goal-maker Bahr reflected, 'Nine times out of 10 they would have beaten us, but that game was our game.' Goalscorer Gaetjens was 26 years old when he hit 'the shot heard around the world'. He never played for the US after 1950, and returned to his native Haiti to open a dry cleaning business. In 1964 the apolitical Gaetjens was arrested by the Tonton Macoutes, the Haitian secret police, and was never seen again. 15 years later, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights published a report that concluded: 'The fact that Mr Gaetjens, a football player of international standing, has not been seen since his detention in 1964 leads to the conclusion that he is dead.' Witnesses later claimed that, within days of his arrest, Gaetjens was lined up against a wall and shot.