The last match of England's 1953 summer tour was scheduled to be played on Sunday the 7th of June but due to a spell of torrential rain, the game was postponed. It was rearranged for the following night and was played under the floodlights of the Yankee Stadium. This was a new experience for the England players and may have something to do with the fact that they took so long to break down a stubborn home defence.

There were shades of the infamous 1950 World Cup game between the two sides as England, always far superior in technique and skills, missed chance after chance. Goalkeeper Moore worlked overtime and the American goal led a charmed life. Finally though with two minutes of the first-half left Ivor Broadis broke the deadlock by hooking home a pass from Tom Finney.

The second half was a different story as England relaxed to play some controlled football. Within minutes of the restart Nat Lofthouse scored number two and Finney quickly added a third to build up a commanding lead. The Americans gamely fought on and their side, which included several players who had had English League experience, pulled a goal back when the lively substitute O.Decker, who came on for the injured Schultz, shot past Ted Ditchburn. That goal came in the 61st minute but a minute later Lofthouse scored again to quash the fightback, or at least, so England thought.

To everyone's astonishment the referee then gave the USA another chance by awarding them a penalty for a highly dubious handball against Harry Johnstone. Atheneos converted the gift and three minutes later O.Decker scored again to really set the game alight.

But England were in no mood to allow a repeat of that 1950 fiasco and they quickly regained control. Finney, who had been much more direct in this half, scored England's fifth goal and with ten minutes to go Redfern Froggatt sealed victory with number six.

The tour of the Americas had certainly been an eventful trip with many things learned. It was an experience that the players would never forget.
    

This first full soccer international staged in New York was arranged to mark the Queen's Coronation six days earlier. It was the first international match that England had ever played under floodlights  The freak rain followed England from South America and a storm forced a 24-hour postponement. Then, under the floodlights at the Yankee Stadium, England - with Tom Finney running riot - avenged the 1-0 World Cup defeat with a comfortable victory in front of a 7,271 crowd. England missed a shoal of chances before Ivor Broadis gave them the lead two minutes before half-time. They quickly went 3-0 clear with goals early in the second half from Finney and Lofthouse. The Americans battled back with the help of a dubious penalty, but another goal each from Lofthouse and Finney followed by a sixth goal from Redfern Froggat underlined England's supremacy in a match in which they could and should have reached double figures. At last, Billy Wright exorcised the ghosts that had haunted him ever since England's humiliating 1-0 World Cup defeat by the USA in Brazil in 1950. He played like a man possessed, determined not to suffer the same embarrassment. This time England outshone the Yankee Stadium floodlights, and Billy's beam at the final whistle signalled his great satisfaction. The press described England as avenging their World Cup defeat by the United States, but it was empty revenge because it was a pretty meaningless match that attracted very little interest in New York. There was a ghostly atmosphere in the Yankee Stadium with the seven thousands fans 'lost' in that vast arena. Terry Springthorpe, who had played for Wolves under Billy Wright's captaincy when winning the 1949 FA Cup final, was in defence for the United States.
  

On Friday, 15 November 1952, The New Musical Express published the first ever singles chart in the UK. However, when England beat the USA, Frankie Laine's I Believe was the best selling single for the fourth week in a row. When the chart of Friday, 5 June 1953 was published, there were twelve surviving songs from the last chart when England played:-

Source Notes

"ENGLAND TO MEET U.S. TEAM
"The F.A. Council, meeting in London yesterday, announced that an international match will be played against U.S.A. in New York after the F.A. tour of South America next May. England will thus have an opportunity to gain revenge for their surprising World Cup defeat by America last season. During the F.A.'s tour England will meet Argentine, Uruguay and Chile in full internationals and a F.A. XI will also oppose an Argentine XI. Peru asked to be included in the tour agenda but it was not found possible to fit in a match with them." - Tuesday, 30 September 1952, Northern Daily Mail

TheFA.com
Original newspaper reports
Official match programme
Rothman's Yearbooks
Mike Payne's England: The Complete Post-War Record (Breedon Books Publishing Company, Derby, U.K., 1993)
Norman Giller, Football Author
Neil Warwick, John Kutner & Tony Brown's The Complete Book of the British Charts (Omnibus Press, 2004)
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CG