May 5 (1955)

Kutis shows it is one of the top teams in the United States by defeating one of Europe’s best, Nuernburg of West Germany, 3-2, under the lights at Oakland Stadium (also known as Walsh Stadium, 5100 Oakland Ave.) Nuernberg, a first-division team with nine national titles to its credit, includes Max Morlock, whose six goals tied him for second among the goal-scoring leaders in the 1954 World Cup won by West Germany. Nuernberg does not disappoint the 5,146 paid fans at Oakland Stadium. “No visiting team in the past 40 years had better command of the ball or finer understanding between players than this German League team,” U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame journalist Dent McSkimming will write in the next day’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Horst Schade puts Nuernberg on the board in the first minute of play, and Nuernberg’s second goal is a “spectacular over-the-head acrobatic thing by Morlock,” according to McSkimming. Nevertheless, Rich Meisemann and Bob Rooney net first-half goals, and future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Bill Looby scores the game-winner. Much of the credit for Kutis’s stunning victory goes to the defensive unit of Herman Wecke, future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Harry Keough, Bob Mueth, Tom Julius and Val Pelizzaro, according to McSkimming: “Their response was the highlight of the game. In the entire 90 minutes of play, the German wizards had only one real, open shot at Goalie Bob Burkard,” leading to Schade’s goal. Kutis’s defeat of Nuernberg is even more emphatic given that Nuernberg had smashed a team of New York all-stars, 7-1, and another all-star group in Hartford, Conn., 11-1 earlier on Nuernberg’s American tour. The victory by Kutis is its second over a major German team in four years. On May 14, 1951, the team, then sponsored by Zenthoefer’s, defeated Eintracht of Frankfurt, 2-1.