WORLD CUP ’90 : Soccer Was the Sport of the ‘20s, ‘30s in the United States : History: Efforts have been made to promote the game in this country for three decades, but actually the nation had one of the world’s better programs long ago.

Sixty years ago, the United States was a soccer power.

Difficult as that might be to believe in light of the U.S. team’s World Cup debacle against Czechoslovakia last Sunday, it’s true.

You could look it up. Better yet, you could talk to Arnold Oliver and Jimmy Brown.

They are the only surviving members of the American team that reached the semifinals of the first World Cup, in Uruguay in 1930. No U.S. soccer team has done better in world competition.

Both men live in New England--Oliver in New Bedford, Mass., and Brown in Greenwich, Conn. Interviewed by telephone on the eve of the current World Cup, the two recalled that first tournament six decades ago and compared the 1930 U.S. team to today’s.

The comparisons were not favorable.

“This country had some of the best players in the world in those days,” Brown, 81, said. “The teams we had here imported all the best players. They brought players from the old country. We didn’t get paid just for playing football; we had to work as well.”

That was in the 1920s, when large companies, particularly in the Northeast, fielded soccer teams. Powerful squads such as Bethlehem Steel, Fall River, the New York Nationals and Brooklyn Wanderers were widely respected, even by teams from overseas.

“All our players were first class,” Brown said. “A lot of professionals came here. You could do better here. You could make up to $50 a game playing for an industrial team, and another $50 a week if you wanted to work for the company at an easy job. That $100 was a fortune in those days. A pack of cigarettes cost only 11 cents then.”

The influx of these players raised the standard of the American Soccer League and allowed American-born players such as Oliver, 83, to improve their own game.

Oliver had hoped to play on the U.S. Olympic team in 1928 but came home one evening to discover that his father had signed a professional contract on his behalf with Hartford, Conn., in the ASL.

“Times were rough, and we needed the money,” Oliver said. “The textile mills were only running two or three days a week. There were soup lines and bread lines.”

Two years after the Amsterdam Olympics, Oliver got his chance to make the national team. After a couple of tryouts, he was one of 16 players selected to represent the United States in the first World Cup.

Because of the Olympic soccer titles it had won in 1924 and ‘28, plus its willingness to pay the expenses of all participants and to build a new stadium for the event in Montevideo, Uruguay was chosen as host of the first tournament.

Not many countries wanted to make the long voyage to Montevideo, and only four European nations sent teams--France, Romania, Yugoslavia and Belgium. Seven South American countries, the United States and Mexico rounded out the field of 13.

“They had an opening-day parade, with every country represented,” Oliver recalled. “There must have been 80,000 people in the stands. Even today, when I close my eyes, I can still see the whole scene. I can even hear the roar of the crowd as we marched into the stadium.”

The U.S. team was grouped with Belgium and Paraguay in the first round and surprised both, winning each game, 3-0.

“We had never played together,” Brown said. “The first time was against the Belgians.”

There were surprises even before that, however. Oliver remembers one conversation he had at the team hotel on the morning of the U.S. team’s first match.

“I looked out of the hotel window--I was rooming with Billy Gonsalves--and I saw these soldiers on horseback wearing those spiked helmets and I said, ‘Hey, Bill, there’s gonna be a parade.’

“Why do you say that, Arnie?”

“There’s a lot of soldiers out there. Take a look.”

“That ain’t a parade.”

“What the hell is it?”

“They’re gonna take us to the game.”

“You mean an honor guard?”

“No, they’re there to protect us.”

The passions that the sport arouses in many countries astounded some of the U.S. players, 11 of whom were American-born--including six starters.

At the stadium before the game with Belgium, a telegram--purportedly from President Herbert Hoover--was read wishing the U.S. team luck.

The Americans did not need it in their first two games, as Bert Patenaude scored the first hat trick in World Cup history and Bart McGhee scored, if not the first, then certainly the second, goal in tournament history. No official time was kept on goals, but FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, gives credit for the first goal to a French player.

So convincing were the Americans in their first two matches that the New York Times published a story on July 21, 1930, under the headline: “U.S. Favored To Win World’s Soccer Title.”

“The United States team . . . is considered the most likely winner of the title as the result of its performances among the 13 nations participating in the tournament,” the story said. “Local papers now agree that they (the U.S. players) are serious candidates to take the world’s honors homewards.”

Reality came in the semifinals in the shape of a rough Argentine team.

“They kicked us all over the place,” Brown said. “We ended up with six sound men. They really went for us.”

The final score, 6-1 in Argentina’s favor, put an end to U.S. hopes and was a foretaste of things to come. In 1934, Italy handed the United States a 7-1 drubbing in Rome. In 1950, despite its 1-0 upset of England, the U.S. team also lost, 5-2, to Spain. And 44 years later it has lost, 5-1, to the Czechs.

Neither Oliver nor Brown could have been surprised by last Sunday’s results. Both predicted that the U.S. players would face an uphill battle in Italy.

“They’re going to have a tough time,” said the Scottish-born Brown, who started all three matches in 1930. “I’ll be rooting like heck for them. Hopefully they’ll pull off an upset, but they’re not going under the same conditions as (when) we went.

“We were fully qualified to play in the World Cup. You must look at it properly. They’re only just trying to get to that standard now. You can’t blame the lads; they’re trying like heck. There’s some damn nice young players there, but I can’t give them much hope, truthfully. Nobody does.”

Oliver, whose role in 1930 was limited to the bench, echoed the thought. “The players on the ’30 team were all professionals,” he said. “I don’t want to be put in the spot of putting my own team down, and I won’t, but what we’ve got are college players, most of them. And it’s a hell of a big jump.

“In 1930, because we had a strong professional league (the ASL), we were on a par with most everybody in the world. It ain’t their (the current U.S. players’) fault there’s no pro league they can play in. Once we get that, like we had it before, then we’ll have a strong team.

“The team is not on a par with what we had. The players today don’t have that classy touch on the ball. It’s true the game is growing here and the kids are getting better. But without a strong professional league and a good club program, our players just don’t develop a classy touch.”

Brown underlined the point. “I think they’ll have no chance to do well,” he said. “If you don’t play against class--repeatedly--you’ll never become class. Our guys have no chance to become class players because there’s no real competition here. We have a lot of good kids, but they have nowhere to go after high school or college.

“They’ll probably blame the coach for a weak performance, but there isn’t much he can do. I’m sure our boys will play their hearts out, but I don’t think they’ll do much. I hope they’ll prove me wrong.”

There is one brief postscript.

In late May, shortly before leaving for Europe, the United States played an exhibition match against Partizan Belgrade of Yugoslavia at New Haven, Conn.

Oliver, who went to the game, took along a memento that he has treasured for 60 years--a small metal and enamel medallion engraved with his name and the words: 1st Campeonato Mondial de Futbol Montevideo 1930.

“After the game, I went down into the (U.S.) dressing room,” Oliver said. “They looked at that medal and they looked at me like I had two heads or something.”

Here was U.S. past meeting U.S. present. The players were in awe.

As Oliver was about to leave, goalkeeper Tony Meola called out: “Hey, Mr. Oliver.”

“Call me Arnie,” Oliver interrupted.

“We’re going to win one for you,” Meola said.

“Good, good,” Oliver replied. “Make sure you do.”