The New York Americans were an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club founded in 1931. Based in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, it played in both the first American Soccer League and second American Soccer League.

History

In 1931, Erno Schwarz, who had played for both the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...

and

Hakoah All-Stars Hakoah All-Stars is a former United States soccer club, based in New York City, that played in the American Soccer League between 1930 and 1932. The club was formed after the merger of Brooklyn Hakoah of the ASL and New York Hakoah of the Easte ...

in the ASL, founded his own team, the New York Americans. That fall, he entered it into the American Soccer League which was in the process of collapsing caused by financial losses stemming from the 1928–1929 "Soccer Wars" and the onset of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Schwarz owned, played for and managed the Americans through the last two years of the ASL's existence. After the disintegration of the original ASL following the 1933 spring season, the ownership of the Americans and New York Brookhattan helped form a new, but lower professional level, ASL in 1933/34. A notable player for the team was

Sol Eisner Sol Eisner is an American former soccer player who played as a forward. Eisner played in the American Soccer League, and on the United States men's national soccer team. Biography Eisner was born in Germany, and is Jewish. He had four brothers ...

. Just before the 1956/57 season, the club merged with

Brooklyn Hakoah Brooklyn Hakoah is a former United States soccer team club based in Brooklyn, New York, that played in the American Soccer League. Brooklyn Hakoah I Originally formed by former players of SC Hakoah Wien, they played in the American Soccer Leagu ...

to form

New York Hakoah New York Hakoah is an American soccer club based in New York City, which takes its name from two earlier, defunct clubs. ''Hakoah'' (roughly translated as "strength" from Hebrew) is a frequent name for sport and social Jewish clubs around the worl ...

. The club won the

Lewis Cup The Lewis Cup was an American soccer trophy established in 1914 as the championship trophy for the amateur Blue Mountain League, which was composed of clubs from the Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geogr ...

and the Duffy Cup in 1950. The club also earned a "double" in 1954 winning both the ASL championship and the

National Challenge Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in that country. The 2023 U.S. Op ...

. In 1965, a team named New York Americans entered the

International Soccer League The International Soccer League was a U.S.-based soccer league which was formed in 1960 and collapsed in 1965. The League, affiliated with the American Soccer League, featured guest teams primarily from Europe and some from Asia, South America, C ...

(ISL) and reached the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

losing the championship to Polonia Bytom.

Year-by-year

References

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...

Defunct soccer clubs in New York City American Soccer League (1921–1933) teams American Soccer League (1933–1983) teams 1931 establishments in New York City 1956 disestablishments in New York (state) Association football clubs established in 1931 Association football clubs disestablished in 1956 U.S. Open Cup winners {{NewYork-footyclub-stub