1928–29 American Soccer League
Introduction Statistics of American Soccer League in season 1928–29.
Overview The first half of the 1928-29 season began on September 1, 1928.This season saw the onset of the Soccer War., a struggle between the American Soccer League and the United States Football Association for control of the sport. It began when the league boycotted the National Challenge Cup in September 1928.Within a week, three ASL teams, Bethlehem Steel, Newark Skeeters and New York Giants, defied the boycott and entered the cup. On September 24, 1928, Bill Cunningham, president of the American Soccer League, suspended the three teams and fined them each $1000.00.In response, the USFA helped create a competing league, the Eastern Professional Soccer League which included the three teams suspended by the ASL, as well as teams from the Southern New York Soccer Association and the newly created New York Hakoah. In a bizarre twist, the first half of the season ended for some teams as early as December 25, 1928, and for others as late as January 13, 1929.The second half of the season then began on December 29, 1928, for some team and for other, not until January 5 or January 13, 1929.This created a situation in which some teams were still playing first half games while other teams were playing their second half games.In December 1928, the league admitted Jersey City as the league's ninth team for the second season. Jersey City made it seven games into the second half before withdrawing from the league and disbanding. Then on March 23, 1929, J&P Coats also withdrew from the league following its victory over Brooklyn that day. The team came under new ownership which renamed it the Pawtucket Rangers and re-entered the league, taking J&P Coats' record and position in the standings. The team played its first game, a 2-1 loss to Fall River on March 30, 1929.The league had one last team withdrew when the New Bedford Whalers left the league and jumped to the Eastern Professional Soccer League after its 4-0 victory over Boston on March 17, 1929.The Fall River Football Club topped the standings in both the first and second half of the season and were declared league champion.
League standings * Percentage is a percentage of games won to games played.===First half===PlaceTeamGPWLDGFGAPtsPct1 Fall River F.C.311795643643 '''.694'''2 Brooklyn Wanderers311867796142 '''.677'''3 New York Nationals291388705334 '''.586'''4 Providence 2413511534431 '''.534'''5 New Bedford Whalers 2911612514728 '''.483'''6 Boston 288812496024 '''.429'''7 Philadelphia 18369274012 '''.333'''8 J&P Coats 284717286915 '''.268'''9 New York Giants832315178 '''.500'''10 Bethlehem Steel 63031286 '''.500'''11 Newark Skeeters 70167300 '''.000'''===Second half===PlaceTeamGPWLDGFGAPtsPct1 Fall River F.C.221165382428 '''.636'''2 Providence221237463727 '''.614'''3 J&P Coats /Pawtucket Rangers2513210423928 '''.560'''4 New York Nationals21876685523 '''.548'''5 Brooklyn Wanderers 20569425018 '''.536'''6 Philadelphia 18639365415 '''.450'''7 Boston257414455518 '''.417'''8 New Bedford Whalers14716372815 '''.360'''9 Jersey City720511234 '''.286'''
League Cup The winners of the League Cup final were awarded the H.E. Lewis Cup. The finalist were tied on aggregate goals (4 each) after their two match series, and so were required to play a third winner take all match at a neutral site, Hawthorne Field in Brooklyn. ===Bracket===----===Semifinals===''New Bedford advances, 4–3, on aggregate.'' ----''New York advances, 8–7, on aggregate.'' ----===Final===''New York wins Lewis Cup, 8–6, on aggregate.''
Goals leaders RankScorerClubGamesGoals1 Janos Nehadoma Brooklyn Wanderers4843 Werner Nilsen Boston53433 John Nelson J&P Coats43394 Bill Paterson Providence35335 Hookey Leonard New York Nationals 50316 Sam Kennedy J&P Coats37237 Freddie Wall Philadelphia2322 Tec White Fall River F.C.49229 Bart McGheeNew York Nationals 301910 Herbert CarlssonNew York Nationals451811 Leslie Lyell Brooklyn Wanderers451712 Billy Adair Brooklyn Wanderers4316 Bert Patenaude  Philadelphia281614 David RobertsonBrooklyn Wanderers381515 Jerry Best New Bedford Whalers3014 Jack GreenProvidence371417 Jim Purvis Philadelphia291318 Bobby CurtisBrooklyn Wanderers411219 Nils Nygren Boston2911 Mike McLeavyProvidence3111 Pete Fitzpatrick New York Giants431122 Billy GonsalvesBoston3210
External links * The Year in American Soccer - 1929
References