England lost to USA with Paul Ince as skipper.

Graham Taylor’s England played two internationals in early June of 1993 and both ended in traumatic defeat.

A week after losing a crucial World Cup qualifier 2-0 in Norway, England went down by the same score to USA in their opening ‘US Cup’ fixture on this day.

The tournament also involved top sides Brazil and Germany. It had been arranged to help teams to prepare for the following year’s World Cup in America, for which they were all hoping to qualify.

The US had some familiar names in their line-up – Roy Wegerle of Coventry City, John Harkes of Sheffield Wednesday and the extravagantly bearded Alexi Lalas who had been prominent at Italia 90.

The defeat in Oslo had hardly been a boost to England’s morale and they played poorly before a 37,000 crowd in Boston’s Foxboro Stadium.

Paul Ince, the Manchester United midfielder who was now England’s first black captain, led from the front as usual. But his team was seriously short of confidence and the only surprise was that the hosts took 43 minutes to score.

Ramos expertly brought Agoos’ cross under control and cut the ball back for Dooley to head firmly past Chris Woods.

Lalas had only been on the field for four minutes when he headed home from a corner for 2-0.

For England it had been a match to forget.