Jonathan Spector hopes to repeat USA's shock win over England in 1950 in this summer's World Cup.
USA defender hopes to repeat shock 1950s win over England
Jonathan Spector is looking to draw inspiration from the USA's shock 1-0 win over England in 1950 when the two teams meet in the World Cup on 12th June.
The US part-timers surprised everyone when they defeated an England side containing Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen in the 1950 World Cup.
Bob Bradley's side are expected to pose England a bigger threat than their 1950 compatriots, but head into the game in patchy form.
The US lost to Czech Republic in a warm-up game before coming from behind to beat Turkey, but Spector highlights that the famous match 60 years ago proves anything is possible going into the finals.
"A lot of us are familiar with this game. It was well before our time but there's a pretty well-known movie that came out in the United States about it," he told the
Daily Mirror.
"I personally saw it and I think a lot of the other guys have as well. Obviously it's a proud moment for the United States and it's something we'd like to repeat.
Different players
"But it was a long time ago, and obviously there are very different players on each team now. It's important not just to focus on England next week, we need to be concerned with ourselves.
"There are certainly two teams in this game and we need to worry about what we're going to do and how we're going to do and how we're going to approach it.
"It's not just about what they need and have and what we need to do to stop them."
Despite the obvious threat of Wayne Rooney the West Ham defender insists he is not the only England player the USA will have to keep an eye on.
"Rooney is certainly a very talented player, we all know that. But he's not the only player in England that has ability - they're a good side. We haven't really gone over tactically how we're going to approach the game," he added.
"I'm not sure there is much of a reaction to the squad they selected. We don't know what 11 they're going to select for the game, and that's what's really important to us."
Unconcerned
USA will be hoping they can return to winning ways against Australia on Saturday in their final warm-up game but the 24-year-old is unconcerned with the recent defeats.
"We'll be working in training as a unit, we'll be watching a video of what went wrong and all of that is extremely helpful," he stated.
"But I think it just takes a little bit of time to get used to playing with one another again. We all come from different systems with our club teams but fortunately we've laid the groundwork in the past.
"It does take a little bit of time to get adjusted and get in sync with one another. It's not really a concern of ours, I know we're going to get there but, as I said it will just take a little bit of time."
