The U.S. Open Cup once did a great deal to widen the horizons of American soccer.
The Archives Room
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.
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.