Friday, March 30, 2012

Today in US Open Cup history... March 30

[1942] One of the more controversial chapters of U.S. Open Cup history was finally laid to rest on March 30. It all started on March 1, when Sparta Ogden Dairy (Chicago) and Chrysler S.C. (Detroit) played to a 3-3 draw after extra time in Chicago for a berth in the Western Semifinals.

The teams met two weeks later in Detroit for the replay, and played to a 2-2 draw, again after extra time. After the first thirty minutes of extra time, referee Jack Wilson ordered another thirty minutes as he was  under orders from the USFA that the match was to produce a winner.

Sparta refused to continue playing, and Wilson awarded the match to Chrysler by forfeit. Chrysler and their supporters thought it was a ploy to avoid losing the match, since they figured the Sparta players were getting tired, and would concede the winning goal.

Sparta filed a protest, stating that since Chrysler were not forced to play an extra thirty minutes in the first match, they had no reason to do so in the replay. The USFA sided with Sparta, and ordered a replay for March 29.

Chrysler then made a request to push back the replay date, arguing that since they had learned of the date a mere four days before, they needed time to get their players off of WWII defense jobs. When the USFA secretary James Armstrong declared in a telegram that a failure to show for the match would "mean forfeiture of the game and also result in further drastic action," Chrysler decided to disband and withdraw from all soccer competitions.

Three days later the Detroit club reconsidered their stance and offered to play the match on April 5, but the USFA ruled that it was too late.

[1924] In front of 14,000 fans at High School Field in St. Louis, the Fall River Marksman defeated Vesper Buick (St. Louis) 4-2 in the National Challenge Cup final. Twice Fall River took the lead only to see Vesper tie the score. It wasn't until Johnny Ried's second half goal that Fall River would take the lead for good, with Harold Brittan scoring in the final minute to put the game away.

[1930] Fall River Marksmen defeat Bruell Insurance of Cleveland 7-2 in the first leg of the National Challenge Cup final at the Polo Grounds in New York. Jimmy McAuley & Werner Nilsen each had hat tricks for Fall River.

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