The Bethlehem Steel soccer team will be the holiday attraction in this branch of sport in New York City on Washington's Birthday. Announcement to this effect was made this morning when it was said that negotiations had been closed for a meeting with the New York F. C., on the grounds at 150th Street and Riverside Avenue.
Jimmy Easton, a player who has been sifted into more positions than any other member of the Bethlehem clan, will play in goal. Kerr, who played a star game in that position last week, is laid up with tonsillitis and will not be recovered sufficiently in time to make the trip.
It was also learned that the soccer management decided not to transfer any of the scheduled home games to other fields. This action was taken despite the fact that one game at lest, the return meeting between Bethlehem and Erie F. C., if played on the latter's grounds would draw in the neighborhood of eight thousand fans. Here it is hardly likely that the game will draw that many hundred.
The Bethlehem team has four more league games. This prolonged schedule is due to the admittance of the Bunker Hill team into the circuit to fill the vacancy made when Patterson dropped out. The Bunker Hill outfit, it is understood, is an aggregation of Paterson players. Their addition to the league means that the team will come here for a game, together with another game on the home lot with the Eries. Away from home Bethlehem will have to meet Bunker Hill and Babcock & Wilcox.
The players who will make the trip to New York on Washington's Birthday are: Easton, Collier, Ferguson, Bethune, Fletcher, Murray, Murphy, J. Morrison, Brittan, Forrest and Fleming.