And 66 years later …

We all know what happened when the USA and England played at the 1950 World Cup in Belo Horizonte. The USA beat England, 1-0, in what is considered the greatest upset in the history of soccer.

There was no television then, so the first word of the game came via the fingers of the telegrapher. Legend has it that British newspapers thought there was a mistake — the score had to havebeen 1-10, for England, not 1-0, for the USA — though that’s never been confirmed.

There was no way you would have missed the score of England’s European Championship match with Icelandon Monday. Social media exploded when Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scored to cancel out Wayne Rooney‘s fourth-minute penalty for England and give Iceland a 2-1 leadin Nice after only 18 minutes.

If you tuned in on television, seeing was believing as Sigurdsson, Sigthorsson, Kari Arnasson, Gylfi Sigurdsson and captain AronGunnarsson outplayed the English and held on for a 2-1 win.

After the game, the French media wanted to know what Sigthorsson, Alejandro Bedoya‘s teammate at Nantes, thought ofIceland’s chances against the host Bleus in the quarterfinals. He said Iceland will have to be more efficient. “We should have beaten the English by a bigger score,” he said.

Icelandeliminated England and deservedly so. England was terrible, from keeper Joe Hart, who let Sigthorsson’s shot squirm past him, to the subdued captain Rooney, the ineffectual RaheemSterling and Harry Kane, who was so bad he was booed by England fans.

England coach Roy Hodgson‘s moves were hammered, from starting Sterling, to bringing on JackWilshere and having Kane take free kicks. Afterwards, he did the sensible thing and quit.

Iceland’s win over England was an upset but it wasn’t a shocker ofthe magnitude of USA over England in Belo Horizonte.

The USA team was comprised of part-time players in 1950. Goalscorer Joe Gaetjens was a dishwasher. All the Iceland starterswere pros, spread over leagues in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.

The USA advanced to the 1950 finals despite winning one of four games inqualifying. Iceland beat the Netherlands — third at the 2014 World Cup — twice in Euro 2016 qualifying. It also beat the Czech Republic and Turkey — two other Euro finalists — to advance to thefinals for the first time.

In 1950, England came into the World Cup as one of the top teams in the world with a record of 23 wins in 28 games since World War II. Two years ago, Hodgsontook England to the World Cup in Brazil, where it did not win a game and finished 26th out of 32 teams.

Still, no one in England thought an Iceland win was imaginable. At halftime of Monday’sgame, the ITV pundits speculated whether Hodgson would drop Hart for the quarterfinal against France, as if overcoming the 2-1 deficit was a mere formality.

Gylfi Sigurdsson knows allabout the English mentality, having played five seasons in the Premier League with Tottenham and Swansea City.

“They thought that this would be a walk in the park,” he said. “We had faithin our ability.”

Den isländske kommentatorn är tillbaka. Lyssna på den hysteriska glädjenvid 2-1 till Island <3 pic.twitter.com/Qv6anSvhyv

— Ehsan Fadakar (@ehsanfadakar) June 27, 2016