FIFA World Cup 2010: The History of USA vs. England Soccer Matches

Posted by By Sports Session at 11 June, at 08 : 58 AM Print

The big game is almost here the USA Soccer will face off against England in the first game of Group C at the FIFA World Cup, as both sides start their 2010 World Cup Campaigns action on the second day of the tournament.  I am not a big soccer fan as I have too much on my sports plate to add another one, but I cannot say that I am not excited about this game.  I did some research into soccer and the history between the U.S. and England, which helped me get into the game a bit more.

Fabio Capello’s side have endured a fairly rocky build-up with two unconvincing friendly victories and an injury to captain Rio Ferdinand, but they will hope for better luck against the side he faced in only his third game as England manager back in 2008.

The US team is currently ranked 14th in the Fifa World Rankings, six places behind England, and will be looking to repeat their superb form in South Africa.  Last Summer during the Confederations Cup the U. S. team finished as runners-up after giving Brazil a huge scare in the final.

The two nations have met on nine previous occasions, and even though England holds the upper hand with seven wins to two, the USA does boast the most impressive victory in what was the sides’ only past encounter at the FIFA World Cup.  The clash at the 1950 World Cup, the fourth edition of the tournament and the first which England had entered, was the first ever between the two nations.

England created a host of chances but failed to take any of them and paid the ultimate price on 38 minutes when Joe Gaetjens glanced home a header to give the USA a surprising lead, one which they held until the final whistle to earn them victory in what has come to be named the “Miracle on Grass.”

The nations met again less than three years later as England embarked on an end-of-season tour.  The friendly match was played in New York and England ran out 6-3 winners with Tom Finney and Nat Lofthouse both hitting two goals each.  The teams seem to play a lot of friendly matches, as I had to get familiar with the term when researching this.

The next two meetings saw even greater margins of victory for the Three Lions—an 8-1 win in Los Angeles saw Bobby Charlton net three goals, but even that was outdone in 1964 when England triumphed 10-0 in New York, with both Roger Hunt and Fred Pickering bagging hat-tricks.

England did not face the USA again for almost two decades before they returned in the summer of 1985 for a friendly. Bobby Robson’s side ran out 5-0 winners with Gary Lineker grabbing two goals.  Graham Taylor was the next to lead an England side out on American soil in Boston in June 1993 as part of the U.S. Cup, a warm-up competition for the FIFA World Cup that was being held in the U.S. the next summer.

Goals from Thomas Dooley and Alexi Lalas gave the U.S. a comfortable 2-0 win over Taylor’s side who would finish bottom of the four-team tournament and who would not return for the World Cup the following year after failing to qualify.  1994 saw the first meeting to be hosted in England as Terry Venables’ side welcomed the USA to Wembley. Two first-half strikes from Alan Shearer gave the home side the win.

The goals would famously be Shearer’s last for his country before he endured a 12-game scoring drought before he snapped out of it in style by winning the Golden Boot at Euro ’96.   Another decade passed before the sides clashed again, this time with Sven Goran Eriksson in charge of the Three Lions side as they faced the USA in a friendly in Chicago.

An experimental England side won 2-1 thanks to two goals from debutant Kieran Richardson, with Clint Dempsey pulling one back late on for the hosts. Zat Knight and Luke Young also made their debuts for England that day.  The most recent clash was in May 2008 when England, now under Fabio Capello, earned a 2-0 victory in a friendly at Wembley thanks to goals from John Terry and Steven Gerrard.

The history was interesting considering I am far from an expert on the sport and the subject, and the fact that the teams have played so little over the decades is the norm for soccer I assume.  With all of that being said there will be great anticipation for the match on Saturday, and both sides want to get off to a great start and have a bit of the bragging rights to go with it.

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