Not sure ive ever seen a thread on this topic in this forum, so here goes. Here's a few resources to get you started if you dont know much about the history of the game in the US, which is much deeper and goes further back than most people would assume if they didnt already know. http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/index.html http://www.ussoccer.com/about/history/timeline.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer_in_the_United_States Thanks to the Philly Union, Bethlehem Steel is getting lots of love these days, and Fall River Rovers/Marksmen were great, to me the greatest early USA team was West Husdson AA, who predate even the vaunted (relatively speaking ) ASL, the league that helped the USA earn that semi final appearance at the 1930 world cup. If all the Kearny/Newark/Harrison teams could be folded into one, that would be the ultimate early US superclub.
goal line judges in 1926! and an interesting sentence on the beginnings of substitutions in the USA. "In 1926-27, the Whalers fell to fourth place, but the Marksmen fell as well, as Bethlehem Steel rose to the top. The ASL introduced substitutions this season, with teams allowed to substitute two players up to 15 minutes before the end of the game. They also added goal judges, whose function was to assist the referee in deciding when the ball had passed over the line into the goal. Another controversial innovation was the brief introduction of penalty boxes. A player receiving a penalty would have to stand behind the goal with the goal judges for a specified period of time, and goalkeepers were not exempt. Despite their 4th place finish, the Whalers led the league in scoring and added Bill Paterson, the Fall River star, to their roster late in the season." David Litterer from http://homepages.sover.net/~spectrum/whalers.html