John Souza

John "Clarkie" Souza-Benavides (b. July 12 1920 in Fall River, Massachusetts) is a former soccer player who earned 14 caps and scored 3 goals for the United States men's national soccer team, and played in the U.S. team's historic 1–0 victory over England in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He was selected for a World Cup All-Star team by the Brazilian sports newspaper "Mundo Esportivo", and remained the only American player ever selected to a World Cup All-Star team until Claudio Reyna in 2002. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Souza is sometimes credited as having scored two goals in the tournament but modern sources indicate he scored neither; Gino Pariani scored against Spain and Frank Wallace scored their first goal against Chile.

Souza was a member of the Fall River Ponta Delgada team that won the U.S. Open Cup in 1947, as well as the National Amateur Cup for three consecutive years, from 1946 to 1948. In 1951, he transferred to the New York German-Hungarians and proceeded to again won both the U.S. Open Cup and the U.S. Amateur Cup that year.

Souza was a member of the U.S. team for both the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, and played for the U.S. against Scotland at Hampden Park in 1952.

John Souza is not related to his teammate Ed Souza.

References

*cite web | url=http://www.soccerhall.org/famers/john_souza.htm | title=John B. Souza | publisher=National Soccer Hall of Fame | accessdate=2007-01-19
*cite web | url=http://www.soccerhall.org/Monthly%20Column/MC.May.2005.htm | title=The Real Story About the 1950 U.S. World Cup Team | publisher=National Soccer Hall of Fame | first=Colin | last=Jose | accessdate=2006-09-14