Much has been made of the U.S. team's 1-1 draw with England on Saturday, but had Italy's Walter Zenga not been a better goalkeeper than England's Robert Green, the Americans would have pulled off a much more shocking 1-1 draw with host Italy in their first-round match at the 1990 World Cup.

It was supposed to be the biggest mismatch in Rome since the Christians were matched against the lions when the U.S. faced Italy in a first-round World Cup match. Instead, the American team, made up mostly of college and semi-pro players, reached down deep, refused to be intimidated, and emerged with pride greatly enhanced after nearly managing a draw against the tournament favorite's in its home stadium.

The game, which took place on June 14, still ranks with the United States' 1-0 defeat of England in 1950 and Italy's 1-0 loss to North Korea in 1966 among the most surprising results in World Cup history. Very few even expected a competitive match, from the U.S. team, which had struggled to qualify for the tournament.

In the days before the match, the Azzurri mostly limited their public statements to mostly just saying that the U.S. team "was in good physical shape" — the soccer equivalent of saying a girl had a nice personality.

Privately, the Italian players were salivating at the thought of facing a U.S. defense that had proven quite porous in their 5-1 opening loss to the Czechoslovakians. The Italian players would slip up at times and refer to the Americans as a "squadra materasso", or "mattress team" that could be scored or slept upon at will.

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Few of the Italian players or journalists could even name any players on the American team, except for assistant coach Antonio Rocca, a frequent traveler to America whose job had been to scout the U.S. team before the World Cup. Rocca saw a hard match in store for the Azzurri, and he made a point to tell me midfielder John Harkes was a very skilled player who could possibly make it to the Italian first division one day.

When the U.S. team came to Piazza di Spagna the day before the match for a pasta dinner, they attracted a large crowd of mostly sympathetic onlookers. "If you beat Italy tomorrow, don't ever come back here," one wag warned the Americans as they boarded the team bus, and the rest of the crowd laughed uproariously at the unlikely prospect.

If that didn't intimidate the Americans, the scene at Rome's Stadio Olimpico surely did. There was a sea of red, white and green flags, a 100-piece marching band, and the chants and cheers of 70,000 Italian tifosi. Despite it being Flag Day back in the U.S., there were only a small sprinkling of Stars and Stripes in the stadium. But the Italian fans (either to honor or parody their guests), did the wave, although their enthusiasm exceeded their coordination.

The Americans did manage the first shot on goal, drawing good-natured applause from both the fans and Italian players. Then goalkeeper Tony Meola blocked Roberto Donadoni's 20-yard freekick before the Azzurri got down to business. At the 11-minute mark, Gianluca Vialli split the American defense before back-passing to Giuseppe Giannini, whose low shot beat Meola.

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It seemed the rout was on, but Italians fell victim to their propensity to always try to score the perfectly artistic goal (Vialli just missed scoring on a bicycle kick). But U.S. fullbacks Desmond Armstrong and Jimmy Banks kept Carnevale and Vialli in check on the flanks, and sweeper Mike Windischmann turned in a performance in the center of the defense that later earned him enshrinement in the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame.

Soccer is a game of chance and inches, and both favored the Americans on this day. After Paul Caligiuri fouled Vialli in the 33rd minute, the Italian striker fooled Meola on the penalty kick, but his shot hit the base of the goalpost. "One centimeter to the right and you'd be writing what a perfectly placed shot it was," Vialli said afterward.

"Vialli was out of the game after that missed penalty kick," Armstrong said afterward. And by the second half, the entire Italian team was thoroughly frustrated. In the 51st minute, a scoreless Carnevale was substituted for Schillaci, cursing audibly and visibly as he left the field.

To to add insult to injury, the Americans showed a surprising mastery of the catenaccio ("big chain" in Italian) system of defensive backpasses. Although like the Italians, they weren't able to launch rapid contropiede ("counterfoot") attack. Instead, Meola would gather up the final backpass, and boom the ball downfield, hoping to draw a foul or scoring opportunity from a challenge in the air.