May 2 (1954)

In what will be described as “a travesty” by U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame journalist Dent McSkimming in the next day’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Beadling of Pittsburgh pulls off a miracle 5-1 win over Simpkins Ford of St. Louis in the U.S. Amateur Cup finals. Playing on a “concrete-hard field” about 20 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, Beadling gets away with “high, wild kicking and foul charging,” according to McSkimming. With the two-game series decided on goal differential, Beadling’s 5-1 win is just enough to take the Cup after losing to Simpkins in St. Louis 5-2 on April 25. “The referee, Harry Sickles, appeared completely unaware that Beadling players were breaking the rules into little pieces,” according to McSkimming, who had covered soccer at all levels, included the World Cup, since the 1920s. “He told the writer after the game that he thought it was a hard game but not especially rough.” Beadling’s fifth goal, which clinches the cup, is illegal, according to McSkimming: “Simpkins players stood immobile in response to the referee’s whistle.  . . . The ball was out of play momentarily and just as it was thrown in by a Pittsburgh player, the referee’s whistle sounded, with the ball in the air. … It went to the foot of Ron Lorenzato, who shot it into an open goal. … The official said he had blown ‘before the throw-in for a restart of play.’” Simpkins, which draws many of its players from the Italian Hill neighborhood, admittedly played poorly, according to McSkimming. “How much of this was due to the threat of injury and how much to the stubbornness of the Beadling defense is hard to say,” McSkimming will write. Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Gino Pariani scores Simpkins’ only goal. Lorenzato scores three times and John Bressanelli adds two goals for Beadling. The game is played on a field “dug out of the side of the hill,” according to McSkimming. “There were no seats of any kind and no shelter for the spectators,” who number about 1,200.