William John Fiedler (January 10, 1910 - September 30, 1985) was an American soccer

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who played seven seasons in the American Soccer League. He was on the U.S. national soccer team at both the

1934 FIFA World Cup The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934. The 1934 World Cup was the first in w ...

and 1936 Summer Olympics. He was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Professional career

Fiedler began his professional career in 1933 with the

Philadelphia German-Americans Philadelphia German-American was an American soccer club based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was an inaugural member of the professional American Soccer League. Before the 1941/42 season the club became known as the Philadelphia Americans. ...

in the American Soccer League, winning the 1935 league championship and the 1936 National Challenge Cup title. In the National Cup series, Fiedler scored one of the Philadelphia goals in its 2–2 away tie with the St. Louis Shamrocks.
/sup> At some point, he moved to Philadelphia Passon. He left the ASL in 1940.

National and Olympic team

Fiedler was called into the for the

, but did not see time in the lone U.S. game of the cup, a 7–1 loss to eventual champion

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

.
/sup> He later played with the national team in an unofficial game with Scotland national football team, Scotland on June 9, 1935.
/sup> A year later, Fiedler was part of the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics, U.S. team at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The U.S. lost its only game of the tournament 1–0 to Italy.
/sup> In that game, “Fiedler suffered torn ligaments in his knee when pushed roughly by Piccini, of the rival team. Weingartner (the referee) "put the thumb" on the Italian, ordering him from the game. Three times he tried to get Piccini to leave but finally gave up. A half dozen Italian players swarmed over the referee, pinning his hands to his sides and clamping hands over his mouth. The game was formally finished with Piccini still in the line up."
/sup> Fiedler died in September 1985 at the age of 75.

References

External links

National Soccer Hall of Fame eligibility bio
1910 births 1985 deaths American men's soccer players Soccer players from Philadelphia American Soccer League (1933–1983) players United States men's international soccer players 1934 FIFA World Cup players Footballers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players for the United States Uhrik Truckers players Men's association football midfielders {{US-footy-midfielder-stub