Belated, as usual, comes word from New York, that the Bethlehem soccer team is scheduled for a home game on Saturday afternoon and with this assignment everything is a hustle and bustle out around training quarters where efforts will be made to muster together a representative team.
For some reason or other the league officials never seem to know what the layout of games for the weekend will be until the very last minute, business methods that are not very gratifying and certainly not conducive to the best interest of the sport. Instead of schedules being arranged in advance which happens to be the case in all other sports, the assignments in the Atlantic Coast League are seldom known until a few days before the game.
However, Bethlehem has a game and it will be Brooklyn. This announcement is quite sufficient to arouse the interest of soccer fans throughout the Lehigh Valley for the Agarites are not coming here merely in hopes of annexing the league points but to avenge a more important matter.
It will be recalled that Bethlehem in its glide to the final round in the Eastern Division for the National Cup accomplished that feat partly at the expense of the Brooklyn boys, for it was Bethlehem that knocked this team out of the chance of competing for the highest soccer laurels attainable in this country, and Mr. Agar out of a nice big bank account.
The Brooklyn manager is one that does not readily forget and may be expected to make every effort to restore the prestige lost by the early elimination in the cup series. The team Brooklyn meets here will not comprise the same lineup as the one that defeated Brooklyn in the previous engagement. The latter Bethlehem team was on intact with regulars and many of whom are still under the weather with injuries and not expected to play. With these players among the absentees Brooklyn’s hopes of victory become even more pronounced although the visitors might meet with the same surprise meted out to Hakoah when the All-Jewish booters here last Saturday opposed a badly crippled team and had to be content with sharing the points.
No effort has been made to determine a Bethlehem lineup at this time and none is expected will be made before the end of the week. However, if any of the cripples are anywhere near fit it is most certain that they will be pressed into action for Brooklyn, of all teams, is one that the Steel City booters take delight in defeating.
If Archie Stark is again forced to be among the missing, Alec Massie will undoubtedly be seen in the center forward position. In this berth the aggressive Massie created a very favorable impression against Hakoah and displayed possibilities which reveal him as an excellent understudy to Stark. Massie’s first-time drives are extremely dangerous in the vicinity of goal and are usually sent through with rifle speed.