American soccer doesn’t treasure its history the way baseball and other sports do. But this country’s traditional national pastime can barely match a quirk of history that will be at stake when the U.S. men’s soccer team plays England at the World Cup on Black Friday (2 p.m. ET, Fox, Telemundo, Peacock).
This country and its old colonial parent have met four times in World Cups: 1950 and 2010 on the men’s side, and 2003 and 2019 on the women’s side. England, the country that invented and claims to still rule the game, went winless in all four.
It’s been 72 years since the first contest, won by the U.S. when Philadelphia’s Walter Bahr assisted Joe Gaetjens to score in the 1-0 upset. That span of time is so long that just one city’s active World Series title drought is longer: Cleveland’s 74-year wait dating back to 1948.
