The first – and best – U.S. World Cup

All Quiet on the Western Front” won the Oscar, Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon” hit the bookstands and C.W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto – the planet, not the dog.

The Great Depression was underway, and so was the launch of a soccer world championship.

In Hoboken, N.J., Frank Sinatra attended junior high school, and the U.S. national team boarded the S.S. Munargo for the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay.

Sixteen men who had never played together were selected by Manager Wilfred R. Cummings and trained by Coach Robert Millar. Ten were born in the U.S., five in Scotland and one in England.

Twelve hailed from Northeast clubs, two from St. Louis and one each from Detroit and Cleveland.

The voyage took two weeks. The team trained on the Munargo, and Cummings boasted that the Americans were bringing “the best conditioned outfit” to the tournament, a claim the competitors agreed with.

The French dubbed the them “the shot-putters,” but the Yanks knew their way around a soccer ball, defeating both first-round rivals Belgium and Paraguay, 3-0.

The Americans entered the field carrying both the U.S. and Uruguayan flag while singing the “Stein Song.” Their spirit endeared them to the Uruguayan crowd, which cheered the Americans in their first two games.

Amid the first snowfall in Montevideo in five years, the U.S. began nervously against Belgium, though solidly in defense, before Bart McGhee scored the Americans’ first World Cup goal. Tom Florie and Bert Patenaude hit the other two goals.

Against Paraguay, Patenaude hit the first World Cup hat trick in history. Cummings, in his team report, described the game: “Paraguay were dandy sports, truly a good combine, but their inside forward play could not get under way, and the boys from the mountains had to be contented with goose eggs.”

The U.S. met Argentina in the semifinals and its fans streamed across the River Plate, swelling the crowd to 80,000. Even the players were frisked when they entered the stadium.

Goalkeeper Jimmy Douglas twisted his knee early on, and Ralph Tracy’s leg was broken after 19 minutes. He stayed on the field until halftime, but a 10-man U.S. collapsed in the second half, losing, 6-1.

It remains the best U.S. finish at the men’s World Cup.

by Soccer America executive editor Mike Woitalla with help from Colin Jose’s “The United States and World Cup Soccer Competition.”