World Cup Football – Glorious Gaetjens upsets old order.

FIFA recalls a pulsating showdown that featured a mailman, dishwasher,

hearse driver, and arguably the greatest upset in World Cup history.

Score: USA 1-0 England

Venue: Brazil 1950 | Group stage; Estadio Independencia, Belo Horizonte

Attendance: 10,151

USA goal: Joe Gaetjens (38)

Team: USA

Coach: William Jeffrey

Starting XI: Frank Borghi, Harry Keough, Joe Maca, Ed McIlvenny, Charlie Colombo, Walter Bahr, Frank Wallace, Gino Pariani, Joe Gaetjens, John Souza, Ed Souza.

Team: England

Coach: Walter Winterbottom

Starting XI: Bert Williams, Alf Ramsey, John Aston, Billy Wright, Laurie Hughes, Jimmy Dickinson, Tom Finney, Wilf Mannion, Roy Bentley, Stan Mortensen, Jimmy Mullen.

England arrived at their first FIFA World Cup in 1950 with a confident swagger and a team full of superstars in Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Tom Finney and Billy Wright. Although the USA had reached the semi-finals at Uruguay 1930, their hastily-assembled squad of part-timers, whose day jobs included a mailman, paint-stripper, dishwasher and hearse driver, had little expectation of success in Brazil.

Meanwhile, a selection of USA players were not officially American citizens and lacked qualified under today’s FIFA standards. The relatively unknown Joe Gaetjens, namely, was born in Haiti and was allowed to play by simply signing a declaration of intent to become a citizen, something he opted not to do after the global finals.

Walter Winterbottom’s men began the tournament brightly, with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Chile. Meanwhile, the USA went down 3-1 to Spain in their opener. So confident were England of victory against the Stars and Stripes that Winterbottom decided to rest Matthews and Jackie Milburn for the group-stage clash.

The Americans were put under pressure from the outset, with USA goalkeeper Frank Borghi, a former minor-league catcher who drove a hearse in St. Louis forced into a number of desperate saves early on to keep his side in the game. The English had no fewer than six clear scoring chances inside the opening 12 minutes, two of which crashed against the post.  

The turning point came in the 38th minute when midfielder Walter Bahr crossed a hopeful ball into the area and, before England stopper Bert Williams was able to latch on to it, the acrobatic Gaetjens managed to score with a diving header to the delight of the 10,000-strong crowd. Prior to that effort, USA had taken just one shot at goal.  

England, as expected, threw everything they could at the Americans after the break but nothing got past the brilliant Borghi. The Three Lions had their final chance with eight minutes to go as USA enforcer Charlie ‘Gloves’ Colombo hauled down the goal-bound Mortenson just outside the area. From Alf Ramsey’s resulting free-kick, Jimmy Mullen headed the ball towards goal but somehow Borghi tipped the ball out.

When the final whistle went, Gaetjens was paraded around the pitch on the shoulders of the Brazilian fans, who had witnessed one of the greatest-ever World Cup upsets. England, for their part, took the defeat as well as they could and shook the hands of their opponents.

Some historical quotes which is still nostalgic amongst football fans:

[] “I hit a decent ball with some steam from 25 to 28 yards out. Somehow Joe Gaetjens got a piece of the ball. It was not a beautiful goal by any means“, said Walter Bahr, USA midfielder.  

[] “You hustle and you hold off a team for a while, but you usually don’t hold off a team that is much better than you as long as we did especially when we scored an early goal, relatively speaking. We would have been happy with a 2-0 loss. In our wildest dreams we didn’t think we’d ever win. We just thought, ‘We’ll do the best we can and hope for a good result’“, quoted Harry Keough, USA defender  

[] “The game had only been started about 10 minutes when we all realised these Americans were an infinitely better side than many thought possible… we all knew that once England scored one, we could quite easily get ten but fortune was against us“, asserted Billy Wright, England captain

[] “There was some kind of impregnable, magical barrier there. Even when we had an open goal, we couldn’t put it in the net“, admitted Alf Ramsey, England defender.

[] “It has been 60 years. It’s taken a lot of forgetting as far as I’m concerned“, quoted Bert Williams, England goalkeeper in 2010.

Following their huge upset over England, it would be another 40 years until the Stars and Stripes (US) made their next appearance at a global finals, at Italy 1990.

Trivia:

Despite scoring one of the most memorable goals in World Cup history, Gaetjens was unable to share any of the spoils. In fact, life turned to tragedy just a few years after the ‘Miracle of Belo Horizonte’.

With the World Cup gaining little-to-no coverage in the USA, there was no hero’s return for the match-winner. After two relatively unsuccessful seasons in France, he returned to Haiti where he finished his career and looked to live out his life in peace with his wife and three children by running his own dry-cleaning business.  

However, his life was put in danger with two of his brothers, Jean and Freddie, being vocal opponents of the country’s despotic leader, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. In July 1964, Gaetjens was arrested by secret police and taken to the notorious Fort Dimanche jail. He was never seen again.

Team Maverick