The countdown to the 2026 World Cupis on! Each day ahead of the tournament’s return to North America, Yahoo Sports will highlight an insight or moment that showcases just how grand the world’s biggest sporting spectacle has become — even beyond the expanded field of this year’s global event.
If you're a fan of U.S. soccer history, one name should stand out: Joe Gaetjens.
It was Gaetjens who scored the goal that stunned the soccer world at the 1950 World Cup, giving the United States a shocking 1-0 victory over England in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, during the group stage. His 38th-minute header became one of the most famous goals in World Cup history.
That would be the only game the U.S. would win that World Cup, but it disrupted England's quest to advance to the final round. (In 1950, the four group winners moved on to a separate group stage to determine the champion.)
The upset was historic, but it didn’t signal a new era for American soccer. The USMNT would not appear at another World Cup for 40 years, until the 1990 World Cup
Gaetjens himself had an unusual path to that moment. A native of Haiti, he was one of three players on that U.S. team who were not American citizens, but were given permission to play by FIFA. His only three appearances for the U.S. came during that World Cup, yet one of them produced a goal that still echoes through U.S. soccer history.
