Appearances and goals

Goulden won 14 England caps while a West Ham player, scoring four goals. He made his debut on 14 May 1937, against Norway in Oslo. England won 6–0 with Goulden scoring in the 85th minute; barging through the defence he scored with a left foot shot.^[3]

He also appeared in several wartime internationals, but these are not considered official full international matches.

Berlin 1938

The match against Germany in Berlin in 1938 is notorious because the England team were pressured by the Foreign Office into giving the Nazi salute while the German national anthem was played. The team were furious:

The dressing room erupted. There was bedlam. All the England players were livid and totally opposed to this, myself included. Everyone was shouting at once. Eddie Hapgood, normally a respectful and devoted captain, wagged his finger at the official and told him what he could do with the Nazi salute, which involved putting it where the sun doesn't shine.

— Stanley Matthews, The Way It Was, 2000., ^[4]

However, the British ambassador, Nevile Henderson, insisted, believing that doing so would help defuse dangerously high international tensions.

There were 110,000 Germans watching the game, including Hermann Goering and Josef Goebbels, and Hitler had hoped to use the game for propaganda, in part because the German side included a player from the newly annexed Austria. Hitler was expected at the game, but it is believed that he did not attend.

Goulden, who was Jewish, and normally known for his creativity rather than his shooting ability; scored the final goal in England's 6–3 victory, a goal has been described as the East End's Jesse Owens moment^[5] and which teammate Stanley Matthews described as probably the greatest goal I ever saw.

I glanced across and saw Len Goulden steaming in just left of the centre of midfield, some 35 yards from goal. I arced around the ball in order to get some power behind the cross and picked my spot just ahead of Len. He met the ball at around knee height. My initial thought was that he'd control it and take it on to get nearer the German goal, but he didn't. Len met the ball on the run; without surrendering any pace, his left leg cocked back like the trigger of a gun, snapped forward and he met the ball full face on the volley. From 25 yards the ball screamed into the roof of the net with such power that the netting was ripped from two of the pegs by which it was tied to the crossbar. The terraces of the packed Olympic Stadium were as lifeless as a string of dead fish. "Let them salute that one," Len yelled as he carried on running, arms aloft.

— Stanley Matthews, The Way It Was, 2000., ^[4]

Other notable matches

A week after the Berlin game, England played Switzerland at Sportplatz Hardturm in Zurich. The match was started by a drop ball released from an aircraft - after circling the stadium, the aeroplane swooped over the pitch releasing the ball which landed almost exactly on the centre circle.^[6] The match finished 1–1.

On 26 October 1938, England played a Rest of Europe side managed by Vittorio Pozzo at Highbury in London, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Football Association. The match was the second ever to be shown on live on TV,^[7] though only the first half was shown. Goulden scored the final goal in a 3–0 victory. Sixty three years later, in 2001, FIFA retrospectively downgraded the match to unofficial, though the FA disputes this decision and continues to treat the match as official.^[8]