5 - Iceland 2-1 England (June 27, 2016)
The end of the comical disaster known as the "Roy Hodgson Era". A characteristically underperforming English squad took on a nation with a population comparable to the city of Leicester. As Leicester had accomplished "the impossible" and won the Premier League only about a month before, that is one hell of a foreshadow for what was to come. To be totally fair, Iceland did have a very capable and underrated squad so the win wasn't a surprise to some people. Even so, the inventors of the modern rules of the game had lost to a small island microstate with a climate that is hardly suitable for football in a major continental tournament.
4 - Luxembourg 5-3 Great Britain [AET] (July 16, 1952)
While not specifically an England match, the entire Starting XI for this match was English, so to me this counts as an England match. While it should be noted that the Brits were fielding a squad where the best players were mostly from the second tier of English football, it should also be noted that there were only two players on the Luxembourg squad playing outside of Luxembourg (Both of which were forwards, and they scored a combined ONE GOAL in the tournament). With that said being drawn with Luxembourg after 90 minutes is already a red flag against the quality of play the Brits were showing, but it all fell apart after Luxembourg scored three extra time goals in the span of six minutes. The British manager was Walter Winterbottom, who despite being a legendary manager for England, would also be in charge of the next two matches on this list.
3 - Hungary 6-3 England (November 25, 1953)
To be totally fair, Hungary was the absolute best team in the world in the early-mid 1950s. However, the analysis of the match shows that a large portion of the loss can be more easily attributed to the incompetence and laziness of the English, which is evidenced by the outdated tactics they were using (notably the WM formation from the 1920s) and the low standard of coaching regimes in the country. It didn't even take a minute for England to be completely exposed by Hungary's tactical advances as they conceded a first minute goal at Wembley in front of more than 100,000 spectators. This was the game that led to England finally admitting that they need to catch up to the rest of the world, and a taste for revenge developed that led England to travel to Budapest to avenge the loss, which resulted in...
2 - Hungary 7-1 England (May 23, 1954)
Clearly not learning from the previous clash against Hungary and writing that result off as a total fluke, England once again fielded its usual WM formation and used the same coach and some of the same players that had lost to the Hungarians in the previous calendar year. Once again the English tactics were brutally violated by the Hungarians, and what resulted is the heaviest defeat in England's history.
1 - United States 1-0 England (June 29, 1950)
In England's first ever World Cup campaign which included legends of the sport like Alf Ramsey, Billy Wright, Stan Mortensen, among others, they lost 1-0 to an American amateur team who, not unlike San Marino today (even the skill level of the US team would have probably been comparable to San Marino today), worked other jobs to support themselves and their families, not to mention some players had been selected just before the start of the match. Coupled with the English cricket team also having their first defeat to the West Indies, this could possibly be said to be the worst day in English sports history. |