Remembering World Cup Glory From Yesteryear
The party that's started in South Africa has been called the largest shared experience in the world. Football -- soccer to us Americans -- World Cup.
The last final four years ago drew -- the organizers claim -- a world-wide TV audience of more than 700 million.
And while the big South American and European powers may be the favorites, there are always surprises, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips.
CBSNews.com Special Section: 2010 World Cup
Take the Uniteds States team -- huge underdogs in their first game Saturday against England. For them, there's history.
"We were 500-to1 odds to win," says former U.S. team player Walter Bahr, who knows a thing or two bout World Cup history.
Bahr was there, at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, when a no-hope American team, from an age well before the soccer mom, played power-house England.
"We went to the game thinking if we could keep the score to 3, 4, 5 goals, we'd be doing a pretty good job."
Instead, the result was so special, they've made a movie about it. They call the game, the miracle on grass.
Schedule of World Cup matches
Who Will Win the World Cup?
World Cup: 5 Players to Watch
World Cup: 5 Players to Ignore
World Cup Guide for Americans
How the U.S. Can Beat England
"We scored one, and they didn't get any," says Bahr.
The win was a shock in England, largely ignored at home. Bahr still has a clip from one news paper with the headline "Yankee Spankee." But there was hardly the hoopla that greats today's returning champions.
"My wife was the only one at the airport that met me," said Bahr.
The current team, with stars that play at home and in Europe, is given more chance -- and more recognition.
"Everyone's gonna be rooting for you," President Obama told the team recently.
For the United States to lose against England would be disappointing. For England to lose to a country where football is called soccer ... well, there wouldn't be enough beer in England to drown the sorrow.
Says Bahr: "We've been the raspberry seed in their wisdowm teeth for 60 years. And they've been waiting to even the score all these years."
