The Uruguayan team that toured the United States in 1927 wasn’t really the world champion it was touted as it may have been the greatest team ever to make an American tour.
Author: Roger Allaway
Good days for the Cosmos
The New York Cosmos had an up-and-down record over the years in friendlies against European and South American teams. Two of those home friendlies that do stand out impressively.
A boost for Bethlehem
It was no coincidence that the Bethlehem Steel soccer team, one of the greatest in American soccer history, was at its peak at the same time that World War I was raging in Europe.
The wrong place at the wrong time
Smoke bombs thrown onto the field? Ho-hum. Hooligans in the streets? Yawn. There are American soccer players who have seen far worse, like tear gas in the stadium.
Footnotes
Some odd facts, footnotes in American soccer history.
These Pilgrims brought soccer
A very important factor in reviving American interest in soccer at the beginning of the 20th century was the visits of an English amateur all-star team called the Pilgrims, who made American tours in 1905 and 1909.
The overlapping Werner Fricker
Fricker’s legacy remains not just as the man who brought the World Cup to the United States for the first time, but as an important bridge between eras in American soccer.
Playoffs, then and now
American soccer has had varied experience with playoffs over the years, some good, some bad.
Honoring Colin Jose
Roger Allaway pays tribute to Colin Jose, the giant of North American soccer history who has passed away at the age of 88.
Rounding the curve in ’91
The events of 1991 included some important steps in the right direction for the US national team.
More than spectators
American soccer’s contribution to the American war effort of 1941-45 is not as well known as that of baseball or football, but it definitely did exist.
Old parks
Roger Allaway looks at some historic soccer grounds, some still here, others long gone.
Rising from the depths in ’87
So who brought the United States back? Paul Krumpe and Jim Gabarra did.
The confrontational Joe Barriskill
Joe Barriskill was a complicated figure in American soccer of decades ago, playing an important part in shepherding American soccer through some dark times.
Progress in Paysandu
A high-water mark for American success in international soccer was the 1995 Copa America in Uruguay.
A shirt sponsor in 1887?
Fall River Rovers played in a jersey that displayed a shirt sponsor in 1887.
Bethlehem and Fall River
Bethlehem Steel vs. Fall River was the first great intersectional rivalry in American soccer, and more than 100 years after its last game, it may still be the greatest.
The sad end of the original NASL Cosmos
The decline and fall of the original NASL Cosmos was not a heroic story. It really began in 1982, but its last stages, in 1984 and 1985, were the particularly grim ones.
A perfect 10
Not too many teams have played shorthanded for the full 90 minutes and not only won but collected a trophy, too.
The NASFL
During the years when the East Coast-based American Soccer League was the best in American soccer, a common theme was that a way to expand the sport in the United States would be to establish a midwestern equivalent of the ASL.
Who were and weren’t the Oneidas?
The Oneidas weren’t really the first American soccer team. Even so, they were an important stepping stone in the direction of the American soccer that we know today.
The enterprising Sam Mark
While not a dedicated champion of the game like Tom Cahill or Edgar Lewis, Sam Mark built one of the great American soccer teams, the Fall River Marksmen.
Catching minnows
The Concacaf World Cup qualifying format has thrown the USMNT up against small island nations from the Caribbean in early rounds.
The other Confederations Cup run
In 1999 the United States advanced through the first round from a group that included Brazil and Germany.
Studying mythology
The idea that the United States team at the 1930 World Cup included a group of British ringers is one of the longest-standing pieces of fiction in American soccer.
The Bicentennial Cup
The what cup? Roger Allaway explains.
The Lewis Cup
In its day, which lasted from 1925 to 1963, the Lewis Cup was one of the biggest events in American soccer.
Open Cup widened some horizons
The U.S. Open Cup once did a great deal to widen the horizons of American soccer.
The original dos á cero
The United States’ 2-0 upset of Mexico in the semifinals of the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup seems to have been largely forgotten.
The American Football Association
The American Football Association was only the second “national” football association to be formed outside the British Isles, following one in Canada.
The battle of ’99
The Quarterfinal match against Germany may have been the best match on the USWNT’s path to the championship at the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
Is this the American style?
It is often said that the United States doesn’t have a distinct national style of playing soccer.
The brief Dettmar Cramer
On the sudden departure of Dettmar Cramer as head coach of the USMNT in 1975.
The accidental Gerry Baker
Baker holds the title of the first European first-division player ever to play for the United States men’s national team.
The Cosmos’ takeoff in 1977
Roger Allaway looks at how the New York Cosmos became “The Cosmos!” in 1977.
Got mud?
Three replays and lots of mud in the 1914 American Cup quarterfinal between Bethlehem Steel and West Hudson.
Ticos weren’t as high a hurdle in ’84
Roger Allaway looks at when the USMNT defeated Costa Rica 3-0 at the 1984 Olympics in front of a crowd of 78,265 at Stanford Stadium.
Bethlehem Steel on tour
Overseas tours by American soccer teams have become, while not commonplace, at least not as unusual as they once were. The grand-daddy of them all was Bethlehem Steel’s tour of Sweden and Denmark in 1919.
Shots heard a few blocks away
Paul Caligiuri’s biggest goal wasn’t the first game winner that he’d scored against Trinidad and Maurice. He’d also had one four years earlier, on May 19, 1985, Roger Allaway explains.
D-Day at the Polo Grounds
Nearly every professional sports event in the United States was canceled or postponed on June 6, 1944. Roger Allaway looks at one of the few that wasn’t, a benefit soccer tournament at the Polo Grounds featuring ASL teams.
Guides to American soccer’s past
Roger Allaway looks at the importance of the Spalding Guides and Graham Guides to American soccer historians.
Memorable for the wrong reason
Roger Allaway looks at how crowd trouble marred the meeting between Pelé’s Santos and Eusebio’s Benfica at Randall’s Island in New York in August, 1966.
The unusual Edgar Lewis
Roger Allaway on the driving force behind the powerhouse Bethlehem Steel team of 100 years ago, a man who was an oddity in American soccer.
A starry night in New Jersey
Roger Allaway looks at a game that could have been a magnificent event for American soccer but instead was a rather bittersweet occasion.
The Archives Room: The greatest Open Cup final?
In the 1960 US Open Cup final, Philadelphia’s Ukrainian Nationals came from behind three times over 120 minutes to win the championship with Mike Noha scoring all five of the Uke Nats goals. Roger Allaway has the story.
The Archives Room: Hakoah left its mark on America
Roger Allaway on the legacy of the US tours by Austria’s Hakoah team in the 1920s.
Liverpool chows down
Touring foreign soccer teams have come to the United States for a lot of different reasons over the years, most of them tied in one way or another to money. In 1946, Liverpool came to the United States for lunch.
The forgotten Thomas W. Cahill
A man who dominated the sport in the United States 100 years ago is nearly unknown today.
The Cosmos-Whitecaps classic of 1979
Roger Allaway on the second leg of the 1979 championship semifinal between New York Cosmos and Vancouver Whitecaps, considered by many to be the best game in the history of the original NASL.
Stix by any other name…
Roger Allaway looks at what’s behind the name of some of the most storied teams in US soccer history.
The “American Menace”
Roger Allaway looks back to when European club soccer felt threatened by the ASL.
Nigeria’s American dramatics
Roger Allaway looks at why the men’s soccer tournament at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta deserves to be a lot better remembered than it is.
The record-setting Archie Stark
Billy Gonsalves is considered by many to be the best US player before the Second World War but Archie Stark remains the greatest goalscorer the US has ever produced.
Two finals
Roger Allaway looks at the parallels between the 1960 US Open Cup final and the 2022 MLS Cup final.
Teenage stars are an old story
Roger Allaway looks back at the long tradition of teenage players breaking into U.S. league and national team ranks.
That second leg is a killer
Roger looks back to the 1931 ASL championship to show how second-leg games can result in surprises.
The Archives Room: What was the Soccer War?
Roger Allaway looks at the American Soccer War, the 1928-29 struggle between the U.S. Football Association and the American Soccer League over control of the sport in the US.
Bill Cox and the ISL showed the way
Roger Allaway looks at the International Soccer League, an important step that helped to pave the way toward the start of the original NASL and thus the American soccer scene of today.
A warning that England missed
In the first installment of The Archives Room, Roger Allaway looks at the 1950 World Cup. Everyone knows about the 1-0 US win over England in Brazil. But four days before that game, the US held a 1-0 lead against Spain for 62 minutes before losing 3-1.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over
New Bedford Whalers entered the second leg of the 1931 ALS championship against New York Giants with an 8-3 deficit to overcome.
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