Amateurs stun football nation! Biggest World Cup upset ever

Amateurs stun football nation! Biggest World Cup upset ever What could possibly go wrong when a World Cup favorite packed with top stars faces a team of amateurs? When not even the media, the fans, or their own coach believe in the underdog. Right — everything! In 1950, eleven American amateurs stunned England at the finals in Brazil. A win that should give plenty of World Cup nations more than just hope 76 years later. Because, in principle, the USA had no chance going into their second group match against England. The 'Three Lions' were playing at a World Cup for the first time, were considered among the tournament favorites, and were more than confident against the USA. 📸 Ron Burton So confident, in fact, that coach Walter Winterbottom (yes, that really was his name) simply did not even play his superstar. Stanley Matthews, who in 1956 became the very first Ballon d'Or winner ever, had to watch in Belo Horizonte (Germany fans know the place) as World Cup disaster unfolded. Okay, we're exaggerating. At first, everything looked like a mere formality. The 'Three Lions' kept the USA under constant pressure and had already hit the post twice by the 20th minute. And when the woodwork was not in the way, Roy Bentley and the rest of the attack kept being denied by goalkeeper Frank Borghi. "I had hoped they wouldn't score more than five or six goals that day," the full-time hearse driver later recalled (source: 'FIFA.com'). A small spoiler here: his hopes were exceeded by a mile. England would not score a single goal that day in Belo Horizonte, while the USA would. In the 37th minute, Joe Gaetjens — a dishwasher and accounting student — powered a header into the favorite's net. He had been set up by Walter Bahr — a teacher from Philadelphia. Crazy. But not even the craziest part of the story. Gaetjens was only spotted by US coach William Jeffrey on the eve of the World Cup, called up, and turned into an international. Speaking of making things happen: England then did everything they could to turn the match around — in vain. The USA beat the Three Lions 1-0.  The English media also thought the result was impossible and assumed it was a typo — surely England had won 10-1. In North America, the press even dismissed it as fake news.   As reported in the podcast 'Was bisher geschah', the 'New York Times' mistakenly did not trust the report from Brazil. Back home, no one even noticed the sensational win in Belo Horizonte. Hopefully, though, the underdogs at this year's World Cup know this story all too well. Because unlike the US amateurs, who were tactically and physically far inferior to the English, teams like Cape Verde, Curaçao, Haiti and others are made up entirely of trained professionals. And if things get tight for the smaller nations, we have one tip. Keep an eye out for American hearse drivers. They seem to make pretty good goalkeepers. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.