The US at the 1930 World Cup

Robert Millar

The second part in our series on the US at the World Cup continues our look at the first World Cup in 1930 where the Bert Patenaude scored the first hat trick in World Cup history and the US finished in third place. You can read more about US World Cup appearances in 1930 (part 1), 1934, 1950, the 1950-1990 drought, 1990, 1994, 1998 (part 1), 1998 (part 2), 2002 (part 1), 2002 (part2) and 2006.

The US team for the first World Cup was selected after three tryout games. While Wilfred Cummings, treasurer of the USFA since 1921 was the general manager of the team, the actual coaching was done by Robert Millar.

Millar had played for St. Mirren in Scotland before emigrating to the US. In the 1910s he played in Philadelphia for Tacony, Bethlehem Steel FC and Philadelphia Hibernian. He eventually became a player and coach in the ASL. During the American Soccer Wars he broke from the ASL saying, “You have not lived up to the terms of my contract, which call for me to play and manage under the rules and regulations of the United States Football Association, and by forcing me to engage in outlaw soccer, you are breaking my means of gaining a living.”

While sixteen players were selected for the US squad, the same starting eleven appeared in each of the World Cup matches. These included players from the ASL’s New York Nationals (Jimmy Douglas, Jimmy Gallagher, Bart McGhee), New York Giants (George Moorehouse, James Brown), Providence Clamdiggers (Andy Auld), Fall River Marksmen (Billy Gonsalves, Bert Patenaude), New Bedford Whalers (Tom Florie) as well as players from St. Louis’ Ben Millers team (Raphael Tracey) and Detroit’s Holley Carburetor (Alex Wood).

James Gentle

The only player selected from Philadelphia was also the only amateur on the team. James Gentle played for the Philadelphia Field Club though it seems his language skills were more important than his soccer skills as he was the only person in the American contingent fluent in Spanish.

After a thirteen day voyage by sea, the US squad arrived in Uruguay. During the voyage the team trainer, Jock Coll, had worked hard to maintain the players fitness. Aside from the obvious, this would prove important because the team had not played together before arriving at the World Cup.

The participating teams at the World Cup had been organized into four groups, with Group 1 containing four teams and the rest of he groups three teams. The US was in Group 4 along with Belgium and Paraguay.

The US versus Belgium

Bertram Patenaude (in white), against Belgium defender Nicholas Hoydonck. Patenaude would score the first hat trick in World Cup history four days later in a 3-0 victory over Paraguay.

The US faced Belgium on the first day of the tournament on July 13 at the Estadio Gran Parque Central. The field was wet and heavy after repeated rains and the first snow in Montevideo in five years began to fall as the team took to the field in white uniforms with blue and red horizontal stripes on their socks. For many of the US players, familiar with such conditions from playing during the winter in the Northeastern US in the ASL, it must have felt a bit like home.

In the first 30 minutes the Belgians, wearing red uniforms, pressed the Americans with several scoring opportunities. But the American goalie, Jimmy Douglas, made several spectacular saves. In the 40th minute, Bart McGhee passed to Billy Gonsalves who then banged a shot off the crossbar. McGhee finished the rebound and the US was up 1-0.

Just before halftime, Tom Florie made it 2-0 when the Belgians were caught ball watching: Bert Patenaude had intercepted a clearance by the Belgian defense which he then passed to Florie. The Belgians, waiting for an offside whistle, paused, leaving Florie alone in front of the Belgian goal. When the whistle didn’t come, Florie promptly put the ball in the net.

The US continued to attack in the second half, stopped only by some offsides calls, the crossbar and the post. Patenaude made it 3-0 when he received a chip from Brown. The Belgian goalie had left the line to challenge Brown and Patenaude headed the ball into an empty net.

The US versus Paraguay

Four days after defeating Belgium, the US faced Paraguay in front of a capacity crowd at the Estadio Gran Parque Central. After only ten minutes the US went up 1-0 when Patenaude converted a cross from Andy Auld. Just five minutes later Patenaude made it 2-0 when he beat the Paraguay keeper to a long ball from Raphael Tracey. The US, continuing to dominate in the second half, and made it 3-0 when, after a solo run on the left, Auld passed to Patenaude who shot from a few yards out to record the first hat trick in World Cup history.

The US had surprised many with the best record of the tournament coming out of the group stages, scoring six goals with none allowed, and were viewed as legitimate contenders for the world championship. One Argentinian commentator wrote,

They all are talented athletes who play a smooth game and use their bodies well although occasionally they commit fouls; they have a remarkable domination on high balls which can be paralleled only by the great British and especially Scottish professional teams, whose way of playing perhaps they follow, but without monotonous precision and with much more vitality and enthusiasm. The full backs get rid of the ball with power and assurance; the midfield line defends, mixing very well with the fullbacks and giving remarkable help to the forwards, who have a wonderful kick that they utilize for passes and for sending high balls in to the goal area to exploit their superior heading capacities.

With no British teams in the competition, the US would meet Argentina in the semifinals as a representative of the English soccer style. Tony Cirino writes in U.S. Soccer vs The World, “The U.S. – Argentina game – a replay of the 1928 Olympics – presented a contrast between two soccer schools: the short passing and polished skills of the South Americans and the athletic game in the air and long balls of the North Americans.” Argentina had defeated the US 11-2 at the Olympics.

The semifinals: The US versus Argentina

Back Row, from left to right: Bob Millar (manager), Jimmy Gallagher, Alexander Wood, Jimmy Douglas, George Moorhouse, Ralph Tracy, Andy Auld, Jack Coll (trainer). Front Row: Left to Right: Jim Brown, Billy Gonsalves, Bert Patenaude, Tom Florie, Bart McGhee.

The US took to the field at the newly completed Estadio Centenario on July 26, 1930, the home crowd favorites: every Uruguayan wanted the US to defeat the Argentinians. The dimensions of the field – 100 yards wide by 138 yards long – clearly rattled the US players and the US was unable to duplicate its performance in the previous two games. Within the first 20 minutes of the match a foul on US goalkeeper Douglas resulted in a twisted knee and a foul on Tracey injured his right leg. The pressure from the Argentinians grew.

In the 23rd minute, Argentina scored its first goal. The US fought back and the injured Tracey, who had actually broken his leg, missed two chances. Then the dam burst: between the 50th and 80th minute, Argentina scored four goals. The match became increasingly nasty and two minutes before time, Argentina scored a sixth goal. In the closing seconds of the match, Auld and Brown combine to pass the ball to Patenaude. Patenaude returned the ball to Brown who then scored the only US goal of the match. The US lost 6-1.

The US was hampered by injuries in an era when no substitutions were allowed and Millar blamed the Belgian referee for letting the Argentinians get away with dirty play. Billy Gonsalves, who has been referred to as “the Babe Ruth of American soccer,” called the game “murder” and said, “They crippled Douglas, deliberately, they broke Tracey’s leg, they hit Auld.” In the end they finished the match with only eight fit players on the pitch. Nevertheless, they had clearly been outclassed by a superior opponent and style of play.

The injury to Auld led to one of the great myths of World Cup history. When the team’s trainer, Jock Coll, entered the field to attend to Auld, legend has it that a bottle of chloroform in his medicine bag broke open, so incapacitating Coll that he had to be assisted off of the field. According to the match report written by Wilfred Cummings, “Andy Auld had his lip ripped wide open and one of the players from across the La Platte River had knocked the smelling salts out of Trainer Coll’s hand and into Andy’s eyes, temporarily blinding one of the outstanding “little stars” of the World’s Series.”

Whatever may have happened in the 1930 World Cup chloroform incident, the US finished third in the tournament when Uruguay beat Yugoslavia 6-1 in the other semifinal game. Uruguay would defeat Argentina 4-2 after being down 1-2 at the half to win the first World Cup.

After the 1930 World Cup

On the way back to the US, the team played a series of exhibition games. They lost their first two matches to the Uruguayan professional teams Central Park and Penarol. In Brazil they played Santos. After being down 3-1 at half time, the US battled back to win 4-3. While the team was in the dressing room after the match, the referee visited with an interpreter to explain “he had been shown the error of his ways and had disallowed one of the [goals] after the game was over, and the score officially would be 3-3.”

The team then played three more exhibition games in Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, and Botafogo, each of which was marked by “scandalously partisan refereeing.” In the six exhibition games they played in Uruguay and Brazil, a total of ten goals were disallowed for the US.

In the years after the first World Cup, many standard histories of the tournament tried to explain the unexpectedly fine performance of the US as resulting from the presence of six professional players imported from England and Scotland. As Roger Allaway explains in “The myth of British Pros on the 1930 U.S. team“, while there were six players from Britain on the team – five Scottish and one English – only one of them, George Moorhouse, had played with a professional team prior to coming to the US. His total professional experience in England? Two third division games. Of the six players in question, two did play professionally in England – James Brown with Manchester United, Brentford and Tottenham,  and Alexander Wood with Leicester City and Nottingham Forrest – but not until after the 1930 World Cup. The rest of the players continued their professional careers in the US, right where those careers had started.

The success of the US at the 1930 World Cup was no doubt related to the relatively weak field of competitors since so many European nations decided not to send teams to the tournament. But the team’s success was also attributable to the quality of the ASL throughout the 1920s. Should the US enjoy a strong performance in the 2010 World Cup, it will in no small part be a result of the impact of the MLS on US soccer.

Footage from the 1930 World Cup