CONCACAF will never again have a World Cup qualifying cycle as grueling| Michael Arace
In the first round of the 1950 World Cup of soccer football, a semi-professional team of Americans defeated England, where the sport was invented. The“You need to think in terms of a British college baseball team beating the New York Yankees. . . . The US lineup included a postman, a mill worker and, appropriately enough from England's point of view, a funeral director.
Which leads us to a tea-spilling, scone-spitting, historical fact: The Americans are unbeaten against England in World Cup competition. The U.S. took four points in the first two games and basically punched their ticket to Qatar. They finished third in the CONCAF standings behind Canada and Mexico .
There were times in the qualifying cycle when the U.S. left points on the field. There were other times when the Americans rose to meet challenges, particularly when they were short-manned. When I parse through the 14 games played over seven months, here’s where I land: