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For 15 years, Scott Pondrom has painted murals across our city. But this particular experience was as unique as his subject.

“I’m always outside painting somewhere, but it has never really connected to the community like this,” Pondrom said from The Hill, ӣ����Ƶ’ iconic Italian neighborhood.

Seventy-five years ago Sunday, the U.S. men’s soccer team shocked the world in the World Cup. The American team of mostly amateurs defeated England, arguably the top team on the planet, 1-0, in a World Cup match on June 29, 1950. To this day, it’s considered by many soccer scholars as the greatest upset ever. Well, five of the 11 U.S. players were from ӣ����Ƶ — Frank Borghi, Harry Keough, Gino Pariani, Charlie Colombo and Frank “Pee Wee” Wallace — and four of them were from The Hill.

“One of the most incredible things for me,” the artist Pondrom said, “is that I’ve talked to people every day — every day — who are coming by here, telling me what they know about (the 1950 team). The daughter and son of the goalie, Frank Borghi, live right down the street. They’ve walked by and talked to me about it. … And there have been people who are not related (to the players). There was an older gentleman who came up and immediately just named off every single player by heart. That was incredible.”

Here on The Hill, the fabric of the city is now on the brick of the city.

Commissioned by ӣ����Ƶ City SC, Pondrom’s mural is on the side of Anthonino’s Taverna. It states the phrase “Hill 2 Brazil,” in reference to where the famous match was played, and features the five late heroes. This victory, 75 years ago, let it be known that ӣ����Ƶ was America’s “Soccer City.” What a legacy, too. According to U.S. Soccer and City SC, more than 800 players have played for the U.S. Men’s National Team to date — and 76 of those players were from ӣ����Ƶ. Thus, 10% of all players.

Think about that for a moment.

The team’s story was captured in the 1996 Geoffrey Douglas book called “The Game of Their Lives,” which was later made into a movie — filmed in ӣ����Ƶ — which is available to watch on Amazon Prime. According to Douglas’ book, the U.S. coach William Jeffrey did an interview before the game and said: “We have no chance.” And he described his players as “sheep ready to be slaughtered.”

In just the second minute of the game, the proclaimed “Kings of Football” attacked the U.S. net, but Borghi made an amazing save. He soon made another save. And another save. Frankly, Frank saved the day. And in the 37th minute, Joe Gaetjens scored the improbable goal that would prove game-winning.

As Tom Timmermann described in Borghi’s 2015 Post-Dispatch obituary, “When the game ended, the Brazilian fans in Belo Horizonte, who saw England as their main competition for the championship, ran on the field and carried Borghi off on their shoulders. ‘I didn’t know what they were doing at first,’ he said later. ‘I was kind of nervous. They picked me up and carried me 110 yards to the dugout. It was kind of exciting.’ ”

A lesser-known person in the story? ӣ����Ƶan Walter Giesler, who was the manager who put together the roster.

“So he’s the one that pushed for the five ӣ����Ƶans to be included on the squad …” said Giesler’s grandson, Bob Schmelzle. “You always like to make sure that his legacy is remembered. Because with each passing year, you know, less and less people remember his contribution.”

It wasn’t until this past week that Schmelzle — and Schmelzle’s mother, Peggy — learned of a fun anecdote from that famous day.

So, his mom’s sister — Judie Giesler Donohue — was born on June 29, 1940.

“And June 29, the day of the match, was her 10th birthday,” Schmelzle said. “And my grandfather apparently called from Brazil and was jumping through the phone with excitement to tell my aunt that the U.S. had beaten England and to wish her happy birthday.”

And so, on Aunt Judie’s 85th birthday, ӣ����Ƶ celebrates the 75th anniversary of the city’s greatest soccer moment. And while it’s memorialized in the mural, many residents already carry the memories. “The 1950 team” is a thing people know around here — and that’s pretty cool. But newcomers and a new generation will now learn about Borghi and the boys, who went from the Hill to Brazil and turned an audacious dream into, well, a goal.