Andy Straden
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrew John Straden | ||
| Date of birth | November 24, 1897 | ||
| Place of birth | Bothwell, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | June 1967 | ||
| Place of death | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | ||
| Playing position | Center Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1924-1925 | Fleisher Yarn | 34 | (20) |
| 1925 | Shawsheen Indians | 5 | (5) |
| 1925-1926 | New York Giants | 18 | (6) |
| National team | |||
| 1924 | United States | 4 | (3) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). | |||
Andy Straden (also spelled Stradan) (November 27, 1897 - June 1967) was a U.S. soccer forward who was a member of the 1924 U.S. Olympic Team and played professionally in the first American Soccer League.
American Soccer League
Straden, was an amateur player in the early 1920s with Fleisher Yarn when the team won the 1924 National Amateur Cup. That summer, he was selected to play with the U.S. at the Summer Olympics. When he returned to the U.S., Straden rejoined Fleisher Yarn for the 1924-1925 American Soccer League season. This was Yarn’s first season as a professional club and its first season in the ASL. Straden scored twenty goals in thirty-four games that season before moving to the Shawsheen Indians for the start of the 1925-1926 season. However, the Indians folded two months into the season and he ended the season with the New York Giants. He played only two games with the Giants during the 1926-1927 season and retired.[1]
National and Olympic teams
At the 1924 Summer Olympics, the U.S. fielded an entirely amateur side, including Straden. In the four games that year, two at the games and two during a European exhibition tour following the U.S.’s elimination. In the first U.S. game of the Olympics, the U.S. defeated Estonia off a tenth minute Straden penalty kick. Uruguay, the dominant national team of the era, easily eliminated the U.S. in the next round.[2] Following their elimination, the U.S. defeated Poland in Warsaw, 3-2. Two of the U.S. goals came from Straden. Then the U.S. fell to Ireland in Dublin. Aside from those four games that year, Straden never again suited up for the U.S.[3]