1928–29 American Soccer League

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 Marksmen 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

Place	Team	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	Points	Percentage
1	Fall River Marksmen	31	17	9	5	64	36	43	.694
2	Brooklyn Wanderers	31	18	6	7	79	61	42	.677
3	New York Nationals	29	13	8	8	70	53	34	.586
4	Providence	24	13	5	11	53	44	31	.534
5	New Bedford Whalers	29	11	6	12	51	47	28	.483
6	Boston	28	8	8	12	49	60	24	.429
7	Philadelphia	18	3	6	9	27	40	12	.333
8	J&P Coats	28	4	7	17	28	69	15	.268
9	New York Giants	8	3	2	3	15	17	8	.500
10	Bethlehem Steel	6	3	0	3	12	8	6	.500
11	Newark Skeeters	7	0	1	6	7	30	0	.000

Second half

Place	Team	GP	W	L	D	GF	GA	Points	Percentage
1	Fall River Marksmen	22	11	6	5	38	24	28	.636
2	Providence	22	12	3	7	46	37	27	.614
3	J&P Coats / Pawtucket Rangers	25	13	2	10	42	39	28	.560
4	New York Nationals	21	8	7	6	68	55	23	.548
5	Brooklyn Wanderers	20	5	6	9	42	50	18	.536
6	Philadelphia	18	6	3	9	36	54	15	.450
7	Boston	25	7	4	14	45	55	18	.417
8	New Bedford Whalers	14	7	1	6	37	28	15	.360
9	Jersey City	7	2	0	5	11	23	4	.286

League cup

Bracket

	January 5–20					January 26 - February 3
	MA	New Bedford Whalers	1-3
	MA	Fall River Marksmen	1-2
						MA	New Bedford Whalers	3-2-2
						NY	New York Nationals	2-2-4
	NY	New York Nationals	5-3
	NY	Brooklyn Wanderers	5-2

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Semifinals

New Bedford Whalers v Fall River Marksmen

January 5, 1929

New Bedford Whalers	1-1	Fall River Marksmen
Mike McLeavy  9'		79' Alex McNab

New Bedford, Massachusetts Referee: A. White

Fall River Marksmen v New Bedford Whalers

January 6, 1929

Fall River Marksmen	2-3	New Bedford Whalers
Tec White Bert Patenaude Denis Doyle  79' OG		Sam Kennedy  80' Sam Chedgzoy

Mark's Stadium, Tiverton, Rhode Island Referee: R. Bethune

New Bedford advances 4-3 on aggregate.

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New York Nationals v Brooklyn Wanderers

January 19, 1929

New York Nationals	5-5	Brooklyn Wanderers
Hookey Leonard Bart McGhee Jimmy Gallagher John Nelson		Bobby Curtis János Nehadoma

The Polo Ground, New York, New York

Brooklyn Wanderers v New York Nationals

January 20, 1929

Brooklyn Wanderers	2-3	New York Nationals
Frank Toner  48' 53'		27' 33' 43' John Nelson

Hawthorne Field, Brooklyn, New York Attendance: 5,000 Referee: James Walder

New York advances 8-7 on aggregate.

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Final

New Bedford Whalers v New York Nationals

January 26, 1929

New Bedford Whalers	3-2	New York Nationals
Sam Chedgzoy  10' Mike McLeavy  30' Jimmy Howieson  82'		43' John Nelson

New Bedford, Massachusetts Attendance: 5,000

New York Nationals v New Bedford Whalers

January 27, 1929

New York Nationals	2-1	New Bedford Whalers
Hookey Leonard		Sam Kennedy

The Polo Grounds, New York, New York

New York Nationals v New Bedford Whalers

February 3, 1929

New York Nationals	4-2	New Bedford Whalers
Jimmy Gallagher  56' 73' John Nelson  79'		46' Sam Chedgzoy Sam Kennedy

Hawthorne Field, Brooklyn, New York Attendance: 4,000 Referee: Thomas Cunningham

Goals leaders

Rank	Scorer	Club	Games	Goals
1	Janos Nehadoma	Brooklyn Wanderers	48	43
	Werner Nilsen	Boston	53	43
3	John Nelson	J&P Coats	43	39
4	Bill Paterson	Providence	35	33
5	Hookey Leonard	New York Nationals	50	31
6	Sam Kennedy	J&P Coats	37	23
7	Freddie Wall	Philadelphia	23	22
	Tec White	Fall River Marksmen	49	22
9	Bart McGhee	New York Nationals	30	19
10	Herbert Carlsson	New York Nationals	45	18
11	Leslie Lyell	Brooklyn Wanderers	45	17
12	Billy Adair	Brooklyn Wanderers	43	16
	Bert Patenaude	Philadelphia	28	16
14	David Robertson	Brooklyn Wanderers	38	15
15	Jerry Best	New Bedford Whalers	30	14
	Jack Green	Providence	37	14
17	Jim Purvis	Philadelphia	29	13
18	Bobby Curtis	Brooklyn Wanderers	41	12
19	Nils Nygren	Boston	29	11
	Mike McLeavy	Providence	31	11
	Pete Fitzpatrick	New York Giants	43	11
22	Billy Gonsalves	Boston	32	10

External links

• The Year in American Soccer - 1929