The Cup Ties
With the American Soccer League season rapidly waning, fans are beginning to center interest on the cup ties. League championships mean something, but it is the cup titles that the teams most cherish. Bethlehem goes to bat in a first round cup affair at Newark, N. J., next Sunday afternoon. Apparently the Steelmen are not taking the Jerseymen very seriously, for the day previous some sort of team will be rigged up to meet Brooklyn in Brooklyn in an exhibition game. The league makes provision in giving cup ties preference and never books a game on the day previous to such a tilt.
A Defending Champion
The Steelmen have the gonfalon in the American Soccer League race pretty well sewed up, but will have to start at the beginning in their quest for cup honors. In the cup affair sponsored by the Untied States Football Association, the Steelmen will be the defending champion, having won the title for the firth or sixth time last year by defeating the Ben millers of St. Louis in the final. The score of that game left no doubt as to the superiority of the teams. The National cup routine is one down and out.
May See Cup Games
Local fans are more often than not deprived of seeing cup games on the home soil. It all depends on the luck of the draw. Also on how long a club can survive the grind. While there is uncertainty in National cup affairs being played at home, it is positive that one or two of the league cup games will be played her if Bethlehem survives to the final rounds. In the semi-final and final round of the league cups the arrangement is home-and-home, in which the club with the high total number of goals for the two games is proclaimed the winner.
The Switch in the Lineup
That Bethlehem will shoot for both cups with the majority of last year's successful campaigners in the lineup is forecast by the switch in the lineup evident in the tentative announcement by the layout of the team for the Newark game today. Stark goes back to center forward and the veteran Granger to inside right. Perhaps it's just an experiment but our guess is that the management will stand pat on this forward lineup for the club tilts. Nine veterans who last year bowled over all opposition in the National cup are in the fold. They are the Messrs. "Whitey" McDonald, "Bill" Carnihan, "Bill" Allan, "Bob" McGregor, Johnny Jaap, John Granger, Archie Stark, John Rollo and Malcolm Goldie. This outfit when going right is hard to beat.