World Cup Wolves in rarely seen colour shots
DESPITE a mood of optimism not felt since Euro 96, football didn’t come home in 2018 after all.
All eyes now are on 2022, when we hope that the young England stars who made it to the semifinals will, with four years’ more experience, go further next time round.
But here we have a unique insight into a past World Cup thanks to these wonderful, and rarely seen photographs.
These were taken by a Daily Herald photographer in 1950, and show two of England’s biggest stars in training ahead of their first round match against Chile, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
They were of course, two of our own, Wolves captain and keeper, Billy Wright and Bert Williams. What makes the pictures so special is that colour photographs were as rare as precious stones back in those days.
The local lads were pictured in training ahead of England’s first round group game against Chile. Three were taken at an unspecified training ground, while the one at left shows Billy and FA official inspecting the newly-built Maracana Stadium.
The game took place on Sunday June 25, and England won 2-0, thanks to goals from Stan Mortensen and Wilf Mannion.
But football wasn’t to come home that time either. Four days later, England fell to one of the biggest shock defeats in World Cup history, when they were beaten 1-0 by the amateur players of the United States. A defeat to Spain followed, and England, among the early favoutites, were out.