Rise and Fall

The Bethlehem Steel Football Club after winning the U.S Open Cup Final in 1915.

Into the 1900's soccer was growing rapidly across the nation. The previous generation of collegiate and schoolboy games was now forming into a sport brought over by European immigrants. The transformation from the "Boston Rules" and the separate rugby-style game had now split. Ivy League schools had accepted rugby style rules and began the formation of American Football, while the immigrant workers had now began to play association style football in urban centers across the United States. The formation of USFA in 1913 (Today is just US Soccer Federation) the American Soccer League (ASL) in 1921 was the first of it's kind and set a standard of play, and a common set of rules for American leagues. A true major league in America brought the stability and exposure to the sport, but the success was short lived.

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N. Y. Giants versus Newark and Philadelphia versus Hakoah, two ASL Matches. December 12th, 1928. Note the fans in the stadium, a large crowd!

American Soccer League

The American Soccer League was founded in 1921, merging teams from the National Association Soccer League and the Southern New England Soccer League. The league's center was in the northeastern U.S, with lots of the team being in this region. Thomas Cahill was the leagues first president, and was also one of the founders of the USFA. The league was comprised on international players. During the immigration waves, teams were formed out of factory workers that had immigrated to the country to work. The most notable team of workers was Bethlehem Steel F.C. They offered high pay wages to players who would travel to Pittsburgh, in exchange for them to play on the factory soccer team. This was not an uncommon set-up of teams in the league, as most were not being paid large sums of money to play, but rather to work in the factories the teams represented. The ASL attracted large amounts of fans. As you can see yourself in the listed videos, the league was popular especially in the northeastern U.S. The league was rivaling the NFL in fan attendance. The ASL eventually folded in 1933 after several disagreements on the direction of the league and financial issues.

An ASL match between the New York Nationals and Brooklyn Wanderers, 12/18/1927.

Workers Unions, Communist Connection

With this rise in workers playing soccer, there was also a rise in Union leagues, workers leagues, and a connection to a Communist movement in the United States. Soccer had begun to be affiliated with class issues in the United States. In the late 1920's, the CPUSA was an affiliate of the International Red Sport Program and began to promote union workers leagues in urban areas. The Workers Soccer League (WSL) formed in 1931, and attracted teams and fans a like due to it's low cost. The ASL struggled finacially due to a high cost of operation, and the WSL rivaled this. Though the WSL was not as popular as the ASL, it still fielded a high level of play. The WSL took notes from several union leagues across the country, like the Metropolitan Workers Soccer League in New York City (MWSL). The WSL believed that it was time for "physical culture on a working class basis.", and knew the importance that sports had in American culture. The CPUSA saw sports as a way of soft diplomacy into the hearts and minds of sports fans in urban centers, especially Chicago. This rise in workers and union leagues turned the notion around quickly that soccer was a gentlemanly, upper class, Ivy Leaguers sport. In a span of 40 years, workers immigrating into the country found a home in soccer, and created the workers leagues because of this.

A New York Red Sparks soccer player with the hammer and sickle displayed on his jersey, 1928.

Great Depression and Soccer Wars

The ASL and it's member teams had a growing bitterness against the league and how it was ran. This came to a feud in 1928, when the ASL said that it's member teams could not compete in the Challenge Cup. Bethlehem Steel F.C defied this and played in the Cup anyway. Then in turn, FIFA and the USFA declared that the ASL was an "Outlaw league" sparking the soccer war. The leagues president at the time Charles Stoneham was mob tied and believed that he could uphold the leagues reputation enough to attract players to the ASL still. This did not work. The USFA and FIFA decided to fund many other start up leagues in the United States, and ASL teams began to leave in droves to join them. Players no longer respected the league and were not drawn based off of previous reputations. The ASL finally agreed to the terms that the USFA and FIFA had set up for them, but the scar was left forever. Fans stopped showing up to games and felt betrayed by the leagues politics. The Great Depression began at the same time as the ASL reconciled with the USFA and FIFA. The league was beginning to be strapped for cash and many of the teams still a part of the league could not justify paying players anymore. The ASL couldn't weather the storm of the Great Depression, and folded in 1933. This left soccer as a sport mostly played by ethnic players, workers in an urban center, and would struggle to get back on the path to success after the public distrust of the sport. Fans saw soccer as a sport dominated by foreigners, and began to prefer Gridiron football as soccer's domination fell from grace.

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