Now to the goal by Joe Gaetjens of NY, which came in the 37th minute of the game.
At the time he scored it we didn't think it had too much significance except maybe to wake up the English team, and they would rain goals on us. An article needs to be written about that goal because I've never seen it described correctly.
First, it was not from a free-kick as (English goalie) Williams said it was. It was a throw-in by right-half McIlvenny on England's defensive half of the field. Ed McIllvenny was one of our non-American players, playing with Wrexham in England. I was across the centreline myself when McIllvenny threw to Walter Bahr, our other halfback, who had come over to the right side to assist.
This put Bahr in right halfback position when he got the ball from McIllvanny's throw-in. I was back of Bahr and in a straight line with Bahr's immediate shot...hard but not curving shot from about 25 yards out. I had the best view of anyone except McIllvenny and Bahr himself, being 20 yards from Bahr when he sent the ball goalward.
English centerhalf Hughes saw it go by at a 4-foot level, at which time the streaking figure of Gaetjens came into the situation with a headlong and horizontal dive at Bahr's shot. After Joe touched it with his head, the ball changed speed and veered a little off its original path, which goalie Williams seemed to have had in control. It ricocheted slightly upon Gaetjens's head-dive contact enough to divert to Williams' right as he was moving left. Gaetjens landed face first in the grass, far out of the historic photo which catches Hughes looking back and Ramsay just off the post.
The goalscorer didn't see the result until he lifted his face from the grass and saw it tangled in the net. I couldn't say whether it went over, under or thru Williams. I know he didn't touch it although he was ready to receive Bahr's shot. The photo catches Williams on his right knee and right hand.
It took an impulsive movement by an eccentric centerforward like Gaetjens to make a play such as this. The shot and the slicer-header were on a diagonal angle ... the toughest for goalies to handle. It has always appeared strange to me that such total coverage was given this upset by English papers and no mention was ever made of the fact that we lost to England's World Cup team just 16 days earlier in New York City as both teams were preparing to head for Brazil. They beat us by the same score we beat them..1 - 0 ... with Stanley Matthews in the line-up.
One last point. The English players took it like the first class players they were. They congratulated us though I know how they must have felt, showing that stiff upper lip Hitler could ever understand. Their composure under heart-breaking circumstances has served as an example to me whenever something similar has happened to my team.