When organised US soccer in the form of the American Football Association's American Cup was wound down in 1898 in the face of economic depression caused by the Spanish-American War the men to do it were John McCance, Scots-born, as Treasurer and Secretary, again Scots-born William Robertson, both of Kearny Association and President Dr. J. W. Reid notionally of Arlington A.A. but in reality of Kearny also, since Arlington is the township that borders Soccertoon USA to the north. Perhaps the three of them thought what they were having to do would be permanent but thankfully it was not to be. The war came to a conclusion. Economic confidence was gradually rebuilt and football responded too. By 1906 it was ready to go again. The old trophy was dug out and a new board appointed. The president was now Lancastrian Abraham "Hal" Holden, formally a player with ONT and Kearny Union, Treasurer Harry Craig of Paterson, born in New Jersey of Irish parents, Peter Martin of the Bronx in New York vice-president, probably Irish also, and Herbert Turner, again of Paterson, Secretary. But this time there also an Honorary President, clearly a revered footballing father-figure over the intervening decade, none other than the good Dr. Reid, as good a future candidate for the US Soccer Hall of Fame as could be envisaged.

So who was he? In 1906 he was fifty years old, a physician, Kearny's doctor, living on Kearny Ave. at Kearny's core. He had been born in 1856 so when Kearny Rangers and ONT had been formed was twenty-seven or so with no indication he had been a player. But he was at least a Scot, if Diasporan. Born in Newark, perhaps in Scotland, dying in Arlngton in 1929, both his parents were from the Auld country. Moreover, the Scots , indeed the Kearny input to the continuity, the re-emergence, indeed the eventual resurgence of the game was also apparent. In the first game the referee was Paterson's William Ritchie. In the third he was East Newark's so Kearny's James Hood, the fourth David Shaw, from Paterson once more, the fifth Montgomery of Newark and the sixth Ritchie once more.  He was Scots-born, Hood half-Scots, Shaw Scots-born once more and Montgomery also a Kearny-man. And both Ritchie and Montgomery were also to take Second Round ties before, with all four of the teams to reach the semi-final from East Newark/Kearny and Paterson, the whistle was handed for them to James Caldwell and R. Morrison of New York, impossible to trace but quite possibly Scots also, plus Earl of Newark with Caldwell also taking the final.   

And the final itself would be between West Hudson of Harrison, the township south of Kearny, and True Blues of Paterson, won by the former on a replay. It was a squad of thirteen plus the manager that included a Russian, a Northern Irishman, two other Irishmen, two Scots and two Diasporan Scots, including Robert Marshall, the Kearny plumber cum Alex Ferguson.

(NOTE:  This blog contends that without Scots and Diasporans World football would not be as it is, indeed it might not exist, and nowhere does that seem not just truer but also most obvious than in the case of US Soccer. For thirty odd years they were paramount in its initial introduction, officiating and administration, in its organisational maintenance in the difficult times at the turn of the 19th Century and in its resurgence. And even as the Scots-based administration was replaced by others, self-interested moneymen in large part, it was again Scots players who came in starting from 1907 with the likes of Bryce Scoular aka Tommy Hyslop and from grass-roots upwards raised standards of playing, training and coaching to those at the top-flight in the booming 1920s. Indeed it was Scots who then took the USA to successive World Cup and not without come success. They all deserve the highest recognition)