Aberdeen 1 - 2 Stoke City

By George Minot Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer

Cleveland's Roy Vernon looped a 20-yard shot over the head of goalie Bobby Clark and spoiled the birth of the Washington Whips last night, 2-1.
A crowd of 9403 at D.C. Stadium saw Cleveland, represented by Stoke City of England, win the United Soccer Association's first regular-season game. The game-winning goal came in the 78th minute of' play, moments after the Whips, represented by Aberdeen, Scotland, had missed an excellent scoring opportunity. Cleveland went to the attack quickly, but Clark thwarted its first threat.

2 Defenders Beaten

Then Vernon, a former Welsh international player Stoke City acquired for $100,000, took the ball from a jam-u¬p at the right side of the Whips' goal, moved to the left, and outmanoeuvred two Washington defenders. In the clear, he arched a high shot from just outside the penalty area and Clark, despite a prodigious leap, couldn't deflect it. That goal climaxed a surprising turn in the direction of the game. Just after halftime, with the score tied 1-1, everything seemed to favor Washington's chances.

Goalie Gashed

The Whips had lost no time verifying their reputation as a physically strong, hard-hitting team. Early in the game Cleveland goalie Paul Shardlow suffered an inch-long gash in the back of his head during a scuffle for the ball and was, replaced by John Farmer. George Eastham, the Stokers' outstanding player by far, hurt his ankle and did not play the second half. Maurice Setters, Cleveland's second-best player, also was limping noticeably.
These injuries made Cleveland's prospects look grim indeed. And to boot Washington had been dominating the first half, so the 1-1 halftime score was totally misleading.
Cleveland scored after eight minutes, when Vernon lofted a centering pass to Setters, who was just a few yards away from the Whips' goal. Setters headed the ball past Clark, who never had a chance to stop it. After that Washington peppered the Cleveland goal continually, but was thwarted by , the heads-up play of the Stoker fullbacks and plain bad luck. The fates seemed particularly hostile to Whip forward Jim Storrie. After only two minutes he blasted a 25-yarder which bounced off the crossbar. An¬other time he made a near perfect shot which hit the left post. Another time he had a clear shot which missed by a foot.

Storrie Connects

Storrie, however, did get the tying goal with a minute left in the first half. Pat Wilson, who started in place of captain Harry Melrose, headed the ball to Storrie, who was positioned well to the left of the goal, about 20 yards out. He banged a hard shot perfectly into the right corner of the net, beyond the grasp of Farmer. The Whips had the momentum and, suddenly, wilted. Manager Eddie Turnbull thought the heat, and his team's lack of competition recently, may have caused the letdown. Whatever the reason, Washington could not get its attack rolling. Even when playing with only ten men because of an injury, Cleveland was applying all the pressure.
The Whips' great virtue is their aggressiveness, not finesse and precision. During the second half, especially, Washington was not passing sharply enough to clear the ball out of its own territory with regularity, let alone menace the Stokers' net.
Cleveland displayed the pinpoint passing and finesse which Washington lacked. Its style was epitomised by Eastham, a magnificent ball handler. Once, before he was injured, he was surrounded by four Whip defenders, faked each of them out of their scarlet pants, and advanced to the goal.
If the heat and the inevitable second-half tiredness affected Cleveland at all, it did not mar the precision of their passing. But it took all the oomph out of Washington's attack, and without their aggressiveness and directness the Whips have few assets left.

Source: The Washington Post, 27th May 1967

Solid Base Seen in First Whip Crowd
By Kenneth Denlinger Washington Post Staff Writer

Professional soccer, unlike the hula hoop and the mini-skirt, apparently will not be an instant sensation in Washington.
The debut of the Washington Whips, alias the Aberdeen Dons, under nearly ideal fan conditions last night in D.C. Stadium attracted a crowd of 9403, only about 700 more spectators than saw the Cruzerio-Eintracht exhibition 19 days ago in a driving rain. But Earl Foreman, Whips president, said he was "not disappointed" by the turnout. "We have a lot of work to do, especially in putting more emphasis on sales and promotion, but we have a very solid foundation," he said. "I predict we will draw 12,000 for our next home game because it will be on a Sunday (June 4 against Cagliari of Italy). I requested we play all Sunday games because I feel it is a better time than Friday night," he said.
The Whips need an average of 16,000 fans for each of a their six home games to break even financially.

Responsive Fans

The crowd aided immeasurably by ten pages of soccer tips in the 50-cent program, was generally a Whip-roaring one that caught on quickly about the proper times to ooh and boo. The type of fan the Whips must cultivate is John Russell, a Scotsman in his mid-50s who was sitting, leaping and screaming five rows behind the goal during the Whips' 2-1 defeat by Cleveland.
Russell had no program and was in no need of one, having just arrived in the United a States a few weeks ago after "watching the Dons (Whips) a little more than a fortnight ago." Russell and a bashful friend in his 70s take their soccer seriously and know each of the Whips on sight, whereas the rest of the crowd had to consult the program to identify the players, who wore numbers only on the backs of their red jersies.

Goalie's Head Cut

"Shoot, Jimmy, shoot," the bashful fan implored to Whips outside left, Jimmy Wilson. "Move the ball there, keep sharp." The pair was particularly dissatisfied at a time out that was called early in the first half when Cleveland goalie Paul Shardlow lay still on the ground after grabbing the ball and being apparently kicked on the back of the head. "He's all right, he's all right," they yelled and mentioned that type of tactic is common among goalies to slow the momentum of the opponent. A few minutes later in the Cleveland dressing room, Shardlow, in street clothes, was having trouble combing his hair around an inch-long cut where "somebody put a foot. All part of the game, chap," he said, smiling.
As with the creation of most new organizations, there was considerable scurrying by Whips officials before the game. There were the usual speeches and introductions be¬fore the game and the players ran through parallel lines of a bagpipe band when introduced individually. The English national anthem was played but the American national anthem was not.
The most prevalent player complaints about the stadium field were that it was "cramped" and the raised portions of grass around the dirt infield "made the ball dart at all sorts of nasty angles."

President Receives Whip Season Pass

President Johnson received a season pass yesterday to the Washington Whips soccer games and wished "good luck to the team." The President met with Earl Foreman, Whip s president; General Manager Jerry Cooper, publicist Charlie Brotman, Manager Eddie Turnbull and the United Soccer Association commissioner, Dick Walsh, for about seven minutes in his White House office.

Source, The Washington Post, 27th May 1967