Tim Howard will be key in the long-awaited World Cup rematch against England next week. Psychologically, goalkeeping is the toughest 52 THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 7, 2010 TNY—2010_06_07—PAGE 52—133SC.—LIVE ART r19687—CritiCAL PHOTOGRAPH TO BE WATCHED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PRESS RUN THE sportiNg scENE NaTiONal dEfENsE Can the United States’ goalkeeper produce another Miracle on Grass? BY hampton sidEs ETTY G spot on the field. Howard has Tourette’s syndrome, which he feels may help him stay alert and reactive. Photograph by Jonathan Ferrey. TNY—2010_06_07—PAGE 53—133SC.—LIVE ART r19687—CritiCAL PHOTOGRAPH TO BE WATCHED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE PRESS RUN n June 12th, the United States through a cluster of defenders and got his Although the Miracle on Grass was men’s national soccer team faces head on the ball, deflecting it past the surely a historical aberration, it has none- England,O in Rustenburg, South Africa, keeper and into the back of the net. theless characterized the English and in a match that is expected to draw one The English fought back, playing American teams for decades. England: of the largest audiences in the history of a menacing second half. Borghi again imperious, delusional, fragile on foreign televised sports. The last time the U.S. blocked a battery of shots, but the Amer- soil, good but rarely as good as its fanat- met England in a World Cup was sixty icans were forced to rely mainly on near- ical supporters believe. The United years ago, in June, 1950, in Belo Hori- thuggish defending and prodigious good States: brutish, defense-oriented, inured zonte, Brazil. The American team, cob- luck. They also had a “twelfth man,” in to the fact that scarcely anyone back bled together so hastily that many play- the form of the stadium crowd of thirty home gives a damn, but buoyed by the ers had just met one another, included a thousand Brazilians, who cheered for perennial hope that a big victory might dishwasher, a mail carrier, a meat packer, them rapturously—not because they usher in a Golden Age of American Soc- and a hearse driver. A reporter from Bel- loved the Americans but because they cer. If the English relationship with the fast called them a “band of no-hopers” wanted to see the English knocked out, World Cup has been one of anguish and and “surely the strangest team ever to be to better their own team’s chances. disappointment—England has won the seen at a World Cup.” No one gave the Finally, the whistle blew: the Yanks trophy only once, in 1966—the Ameri- Americans the slightest chance. Their had beaten the Kings of Football, 1–0. can record has been one of incremental coach, Bill Jeffrey, described his squad The Brazilian spectators swarmed the improvement, leading to rising expecta- before the game as “sheep ready to be team, carrying Borghi and Gaetjens tions that are never quite met. slaughtered.” off the field. “Boy, I feel sorry for these Still, American soccer sensibilities The English, then known as the bastards,” one American defender was look toward the British game—its ethos, Kings of Football, viewed the game quoted as saying. “How are they ever its personalities, even its idiom. Among as a mere demonstration. Their team, going to live down the fact we beat aficionados, a field is a “pitch.” Cleats are which Lloyds of London had reportedly them?” “boots.” A scoreless game is “nil–nil.” A insured for three million dollars, was It came to be regarded as the greatest team is a “side,” and a side is plural—as filled with players from England’s well- upset in the history of World Cup soc- in “Chelsea have won the Premiership.” established domestic leagues, led by cer—the so-called Miracle on Grass— In at least this one area of endeavor, Stanley Matthews, who was widely re- and was the subject of a 1996 book by Americans are still colonials, living in garded as the best player in the world. Geoffrey Douglas, “The Game of Their thrall to the great faded empire. As if to Since the end of the Second World Lives.” The English could not quite underscore the point, ESPN, which will War, the English national team had grasp what had happened. Newspaper be televising the World Cup in the amassed a record of twenty-three victo- editors in London, certain the score that United States, has selected four com- ries, four losses, and three ties. Winning came in over the wires was a typing error, mentators to announce the games; three the World Cup was seen as a birthright. posted the result as “10–1, England.” of them are British and one is a Scot. The British had essentially invented The English lost their next match, against football, after all, when, in 1863, a group Spain, and failed to advance to the next ext week in South Africa, England of eleven clubs and schools huddled in a round. In London, the postmortem on will again field some of the best- London tavern to reconcile inconsisten- England’s disastrous performance car- knownN footballers in the world, like cies in local versions of the game. In ried a hint of comic desperation: British Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and 1950, most bookies had the English a constitutions don’t fare well in the trop- John Terry. Its star striker, a fleet Caliban three-to-one favorite to win the whole ics; the long airplane trip was too stress- named Wayne Rooney, is among the tournament. ful; the U.S. team had been recruited two or three most dazzling attackers In Belo Horizonte, the Yanks (as the right off the boats at Ellis Island. playing today. The team manager, a deb- U.S. team is called) were outmatched The Americans, who also failed to onair Italian named Fabio Capello, is re- at every position. The English passed advance, came home to silence. Few of portedly the highest-paid coach at this crisply and maintained a bombardment their countrymen even noticed that they year’s World Cup, and for good reason. worthy of the Great War. The American had pulled off a shocking upset, and the In the qualification route to South Af- goalkeeper, an Italian-American from victory did nothing to excite soccer’s rica, his team earned nine victories in St. Louis named Frank Borghi, hurled popularity in the United States. The ten games, scoring thirty-four goals. En- himself from one side of the goalmouth U.S. men’s national team did not make gland is eighth in the world standings, but to the other. Though the English strik- an appearance in a World Cup for forty for the first time in a long while the En- ers hit the crossbar or the post several years, and didn’t win another World glish are justified in believing that their times in the first half, nothing went in. Cup match until 1994. But the game in team—proudly called the Three Lions— Then, in the thirty-seventh minute, 1950 remained an emblem of hope for a has a chance to win the Cup. The eupho- the American midfielder Walter Bahr succession of mediocre squads. “Some- ria is captured in a song that’s being sung, struck a long ball toward the far post, a times the better team loses,” Walter only half facetiously, around Britain these lofting, quixotic shot that appeared to be Bahr, now eighty-three, told a reporter days: “Football’s Coming Home!” a routine save for the English goalkeeper. recently. “You can’t pick the winner be- The World Cup is by far the largest But a forward named Joe Gaetjens dove forehand—you have to play the game.” athletic event on the planet. More than 54 THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 7, 2010 TNY—2010_06_07—PAGE 54—133SC.54—133SC.—PAGE #2 TEXT CHANGE a billion people are expected to watch this year’s tournament via live television, and events will be held at ten venues across South Africa, from Cape Town and Durban to Johannesburg. Between June 11th and July 11th, thirty-two teams from every part of the globe will play a total of sixty-four games. Vice- President Biden will attend the open- ing ceremonies and the U.S.-England game. Among a host of security and lo- gistical worries, Al Qaeda has vowed to have “a presence” at the tournament. Because the World Cup has never been held in Africa before, it is a source of considerable pride across the continent. “I thought we agreed —no moms!” Three hundred thousand visitors are ex- pected throughout the month, straining •• South Africa’s infrastructure and bring- ing in millions of tourist dollars. English and American fans are ex- starts for Everton in the English Premier coached at Princeton before moving to pected to descend on South Africa in League, will be under enormous pressure Major League Soccer, was putting the unprecedented numbers. (After En- in Rustenburg. Luckily for the Ameri- team through its paces. Bradley, a severe gland, the U.S. goes on to play what are cans, he is in the prime of his career, and man with a buzz cut, is built along the generally viewed as weaker opponents— is generally thought to be one of the best lines of an American football coach: a Slovenia on June 18th, and Algeria on goalkeepers in the world. steady, hardworking, but personality- June 23rd.) Ranked fourteenth in the free drill sergeant whose analysis of world, the Americans are physically im- n Amsterdam a couple of months plays is smattered with terms like “sys- pressive and well-prepared.