Sometimes called the "Miracle on Grass", the USA's 1-0 victory over England in the 1950 World Cup is arguably the biggest upset in the history of the cup; when a team of school teachers, dishwashers, and postmen beat the "Kings of Football". It was the Game of Their Lives. Today, they had the chance to do it again.
posted by daniel striped tiger on Jun 12, 2010 - 241 comments

New Order's 1990 official World Cup song, World In Motion, promised a new, actually listenable era in football songs. So what has England seen since then? The endearing Three Lions for the hopes of Euro '96. Fat Les' Vindaloo celebrated the marriage of matches and curries. Meat Pie Sausage Roll celebrated the meal options of your average footie ground. On The Ball celebrated the meteoric rise of Ant and Dec. In 2006, we had a novelty cover of a novelty song, the unspeakable, the unelectable, and the so bad it loops round to genius. [more inside]
posted by mippy on Apr 30, 2010 - 30 comments

Sir Clive Woodward to switch from rugby to football? Sir Clive Woodward is the head coach of the England rugby union team. Appointed in 1997, he has had stunning success, including winning the 2003 Rugby World Cup. On Tuesday, the Daily Mail carried an incredible story: Woodward was planning to turn his back on rugby in favour of association football (soccer). Premiership club Southampton appear to be his next port of call with his ultimate aim, the England football team. Is it possible for a head coach to switch sports like this? Many experts think not. Is there any previous example of a coach switching sports like this?
posted by salmacis on Sep 1, 2004 - 24 comments

Argentina are out of the World Cup in round one for the first time in forty years. England and Sweden go through to round the second. w00t!
posted by stuporJIX on Jun 12, 2002 - 45 comments

England squad Goalkeepers: David Seaman, David James, Nigel Martyn, Defenders: Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Gareth Southgate, Wes Brown, Danny Mills, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Martin Keown, Midfielders: David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Kieron Dyer, Nicky Butt, Owen Hargreaves, Joe Cole, Strikers: Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Teddy Sheringham, Robbie Fowler, Darius Vassell Well?
posted by Cobbler on May 9, 2002 - 41 comments

World Cup Fever! The draw for the group stages of the FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan was made on 1st December. England got an awful draw: Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria. The USA look like they did much better: Portugal, Poland and one of the hosts, South Korea. As an Englishman, I'm pretty down about it at the moment.
posted by salmacis on Dec 3, 2001 - 36 comments