At the same time, however, he reminded that the group is not nearly as simple as it seems at first glance.
“They are there, interesting rivals. For example, the USA, a team that has some very good players at its center, about which we know what they are capable of, “Southgate said in Doha.
Gareth Southgate probably remembered the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where the English and Americans also met in the basic group. The match in Rustenberg ended in a surprising 1: 1 draw after the shocking mistake of goalkeeper Robert Green. Clint Dempsey fired, the English goalkeeper did not keep the ball and he fell behind his back.
However, there were mischievous diggers who reminded the coach to come back even further. Until 1950, when the world championship was hosted by Brazil. The English national team, starting there for the first time at the World Cup and considered the biggest favorite, experienced a embarrassment that it has not been able to forget to this day.
Before the match in Bello Horizonte, the English players did not intend to get tired of any warm-up at all, not even the best player, the famous Stanley Matthews, who came to the national team from Canada. After all, the Americans arrived with a team in which, in addition to several elderly semi-professionals living in the USA, there was also a hearse driver, a window washer, a high school teacher and a postmaster. However, a certain English journalist joked on the pages of his newspaper before the match: “Only two nations in the world know nothing about football – Eskimos and Americans.”
Team USA, which played seven matches before the trip to the championship and lost all with a total score of 2:45, defended the whole match, but a single sporadic attack and Joe Gaetjense’s run was enough for him to win 1: 0.
When the news of the English newspapers that their national team had lost the World Cup to the USA 0: 1, they considered it a mistake everywhere. At the time when telexes and telephones provided the connection, the information was difficult to verify, so at first it was considered that the number of English goals scored was number one and the Albion team actually won 10: 1. The traditional legend even says that one newspaper printed such results, and only the next day is the confirmed report of the loss of the proud Albion with the “American football Eskimos” misled.
For England, June 29, 1950, became the blackest day in its sports history. Her national cricket team lost its home game to the West Indies team for the first time, and the footballers lost to the Americans at the World Cup.
The English completed the embarrassment in the last match of the basic group with Spain, to which they also lost 0: 1, so the World Cup ended for them.
After returning home, they tried to apologize for the shameful loss to the US by saying that three players from the American team, Gaetjens, McIlvenny and Maca, started illegally because they did not yet have American citizenship at the time. However, at a meeting held on 2 December 1950, FIFA rejected the objections of England, citing the statutes of the US Football Federation. They allowed players who have just applied for American citizenship to join the American national team.
Even in Qatar, the confrontation with the USA will be spicy for the English. The coach of the Americans is Gregg Berhalter, who makes no secret of the fact that Southgate is a coach whom he looks up to and from whom he learns.
“He really is the guy I look up to and have been looking at as my mentor since I took on the US national team. When I got this job, Gareth was the first person I turned to to tell me more about international football. And because he’s just a great guy, he did it and advised me. And now we will compete together at the World Cup, “the American coach admitted that he is excited to join the” English “group.
Perhaps because the US-England match is set to take place in Qatar right after Thanksgiving, Black Friday. Bello Horizonte and that they will not lose even in the third confrontation on the stage of the World Cup with the English.
