Wrigley Field Hosts US vs. England Soccer

The year was 1959. The Dodgers had just moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, which meant the Los Angeles Angels left town for Arizona. This left Wrigley Field in South Los Angeles unoccupied. In May of 1959, with the first LA Dodger season taking place up the road at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the US National soccer team took on the English soccer team in a friendly match at Wrigley Field, which really must have been a hoot.

I just learned of this event, thanks to the LA Times LA History blog. For a bit of context, in 1950 the US had upset England at the World Cup in Brazil 1-0. Back then it was just two points for a victory, as it still is in hockey, and that was the US' only victory in the tournament so they didn't make it out of their group. Only the top team from each of four groups was taken, with a final group round instead of a knockout stage to decide the winner. England didn't make it out of the group either.

Europe hosted the next two World Cups, and then the 1962 World Cup was set to be hosted by Chile. This meant England needed some experience abroad again, which facilitated the 1959 tour. The English started in Brazil (lost 2-0) then to Peru (lost 4-1) and on to Mexico (lost 2-1).

It was the start (or at least the first instance I've seen) of Los Angeles being the defacto soccer capital of the United States. At the very least, it was the first time a European national team had come to Los Angeles. Before then, New York was the destination port for European clubs for obvious reasons.

The English practiced at Hollywood High School, and was headquartered at the Hollywood Roosevelt. As for Wrigley Field, which had been deemed too small for Major League Baseball, was transformed into a soccer pitch; hastily. The dirt of the baseball paths was still down, and sat in front of one of the goals making things difficult for everyone.

There's an excellent writeup of the match here. About 10,000 fans in attendance which would be about half full at Wrigley Field. The US, wearing navy blue kits, scored first, but then England came back with a staggering eight goals.    

Just look at glorious Wrigley Field. To be fair, any ballpark can look glorious in the sun. It is quite compact, I imagine the soccer pitch must have been quite a tight fit. When Wrigley Field in Chicago has done soccer matches, the length of the pitch is along the first base line, mostly in the outfield. The base path does overlap onto one of the corners almost touching the goal, so that seems to give with the description in the blog.