The Globe – Bethlehem
April 5, 1920
A Swing Along Athletic Row
Fred Nonnemacher
A Case of Sour Grapes
The following appears this morning in one of the Philadelphia papers, commenting on the Robins vs. Bethlehem game and those who have been more closely associated with the activities of the Bethlehem team during the last five years, will no doubt take exception to some of the inferences made:

How the mighty have fallen. That well-known phrase now applies to Bethlehem, recognized for the last few years as the champions of the East. The defeat of Bethlehem yesterday by Robins Dry Dock, at Brooklyn, N. Y., and which eliminated Bethlehem from the National competition was really not surprising when we consider that this same Robins team has been displaying consistent form all season while Bethlehem since their arrival back from Sweden early in the fall have really been in and outers. It will be recalled that Bethlehem dropped two games early in the season in the National League, one to Erie and the other to New York. Even after these two defeats some of their most optimistic followers fancied that Bethlehem would “come back,” especially as since those defeats the team had been strengthened.”

In summing up the campaigning of American soccer elevens, it will be a long time before another team can compile a record to equal that of the champions. Any team that can win the National cup competition four out of five years, win most of the games on a Scandinavian tour, dispose of the Canadian elevens and return from the middle west with a creditable showing, surely cannot be robbed of these glowing laurels by the result of one game.


Bethlehem Steel Soccer Club