ST. LOUIS – The day after Thanksgiving, the best soccer players from the United States and England will reignite an old rivalry at the 2022 World Cup.
Three points are on the line, but it’s more than that for the players on the pitch. There’s too much historical significance to fit into this script, but the teams’ soccer histories can be summed up by one word: undefeated, and it’s not the English claiming that title.
The two teams have met twice in the World Cup, most recently in 2010 in South Africa, when Clint Dempsey’s long-range effort trickled into the England goal to give USA a 1-1 draw.
But it was 72 years ago that one of the greatest sporting upsets took place on June 29, 1950, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, when a ragtag group of American soccer players dethroned the kings and inventors of the game, 2-0.
“To play against England was really special,” Ty Keough said. “They used to run this place, they used to run the United States.”
Keough, a former member of the United States Men’s National Team, is the son of Harry Keough, a defender from the 1950 team that upset the Three Lions.
“A huge part of the success of that U.S team was the guys from The Hill,” Keough said. “The Italian guys: Frank Borghi, Charlie Colombo, Gino Pariani, and Frank Wallace; we’re really proud of all of them.”
Heading into the 1950 World Cup, England was one of the favorites to hoist the trophy with 3-1 odds. The United States had lost its previous seven games, being outscored 45 to 2.
“It was one of the greatest sports upsets in the world,” Jim Leeker told FOX 2.
The result stunned English fans, according to Leeker, president of the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame.
“They thought it was a misprint,” he said. “They never thought the USA would be able to beat England.”
But there was no misprint. The United States beat England fair and square, 1-0, thanks to a header from American Joe Gaetjens in minute 38.
Keough, Bhorgi, Colombo, Pariani, and Wallace have all been inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame and their famous match would later be turned into a 2005 movie, “The Game of Their Lives.”
At this year’s World Cup, two more men from St. Louis could help make the impossible happen again. Josh Sargent and Tim Ream both graduated from St. Dominic’s High School in O’Fallon.
“When they introduce Tim Ream and Josh Sargent, they will say from St. Louis, Missouri, and that’s the pride that everyone is hoping for,” Leeker said.