Soccer Championship

Wee Willie McLean, one of the five Scotsmen on his team, scampered down the left side of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, took a neat pass from the inside man, gave the large round leather ball a clever kick with the toe of his right shoe. It sailed past Chesney, the New York Americans' goal guard, into the net behind the goal. That was less than two minutes after the second half began but it was enough to win, 1 to 0, the first game of the two-out-of-three series in the final round for the National Challenge Cup at soccer.

Soccer in the U. S. is controlled by the U. S. Football Association which has 33 affiliated associations, each one containing from 25 to 300 clubs. Any number of teams, amateur or professional, can enter the tournament for the Challenge Cup which is played off first in local tournaments, then by states, finally in an intersectional series between winners from the East and West. Wee Willie McLean's team, Western winner this year, is composed entirely of professionals who play to advertise the Stix, Baer & Fuller Department Store of St. Louis. Five of the men on it--McNab, McPherson, Gonsalves, Nilsen, Watson--used to play for Fall River; McLean played for the Chicago Bricklayers two years ago. The New York Americans are a very different sort of organization. They are largely owned & operated by Erno Schwarcz, Manhattan broker, who coaches the team, captains it, plays outside right forward. Mr. Schwarcz, who used to conduct an orchestra in Vienna, plays a violin with his left hand, was born in Hungary, later naturalized in Austria. He was an internationalist on Hungarian then on Austrian soccer teams. In 1926, he toured the U. S. with the Hakoah team of Austria, became convinced that all soccer needed, to become a major U. S. game, was a few really expert teams. In 1927 he returned to the U. S., partly for business, chiefly to improve the soccer. The Americans have two British fullbacks, three Scottish halfbacks, an inside right named Hausler who is an Austrian Jew, a centre forward, George Michaels, who was born of Russian parents in China, an inside left named William ("Shamus") O'Brien and a goal guard from Bayonne, N. J., named Stanley Chesney.

The last time a Western team won the Challenge Cup was in 1922. Fifteen minutes after the kickoff in the second game in New York last week, sandy-haired little McLean took a pass from his 17-year-old halfback, Ollie Bohlman, sent a rightfoot hook shot into the corner of the net. The Americans evened the score with a fluky goal before the half was out but McLean got one more chance to break the tie. When there were only seven minutes left to play, he sent in a corner kick, low and wide, to his centre, Werner ("Scotty") Nilsen. Nilsen received the pass on his broad Norwegian skull, gave it a resounding butt. The ball sailed past Chesney's long arm for the goal that ended the game, 2 to 1, gave the Westerners the Cup.

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