World Cup!

 

WORLD CUP MANIA!

   The quadrennial World Cup Soccer Tournament inevitably reminds me of my Groveton High School language teacher, Gerard Gaetjens. One October afternoon in 1972, Monsieur Gaetjens ventured to the GHS soccer field to watch our Purple Eagles lose a hard-fought 2-1 contest to a White Mountain Regional team that would end the season as undefeated state champions. (There was only one N.H. boys’ tournament in those days.) A fellow named Dave Pinkham scored both goals for WMRHS. Apres le match—after the game—Monsieur Gaetjens spoke rather dismissively of the quality of soccer he'd witnessed, which I found annoying.

 

   "What does he know?" I thought. "Isn't he from Haiti? Do they even have sports in Haiti?"

   But I knew that soccer (or futbol) WAS the world's most popular sport—played in virtually every nation.

   I remained a soccer guy after high school and made the sub-varsity team at UNH as a freshman. I played several seasons in the NH summer soccer conference. I was delighted to see both my daughters serve as soccer team captains at Concord High School. So being a soccer guy, I naturally get World Cup fever every four years. Men's AND women's. Watching the U.S. women's team beat China for the 1999 Women's World Cup remains one of my top sports memories.

   And as a sports historian of sorts, I knew that the USA didn't have much of a World Cup tradition before the 1990s. Except for 1950. I later read about how that year, a hastily thrown-together U.S. Men's National Team traveled to Brazil for the World Cup tournament. The squad included semi-pro players who otherwise taught high school, drove hearses, or delivered mail. A 500-1 shot, the Americans found themselves scheduled to play a powerhouse England team that had defeated a strong Portugal team 10-0 in Lisbon two weeks earlier. But in a true sports miracle—apologies to 1980 US Olympic ice hockey team—the US pulled off a 1-0 win, in what some still feel is the greatest World Cup upset of all time.

   The lone goal was scored on a first half header by a Haitian dishwasher then living in New York City. His name was Joe Gaetjens—brother of Gerard, my high school French teacher.

   I guess they did have sports in Haiti after all!