George Moorhouse

George Moorhouse
Personal information
Full name	George Moorhouse
Position(s)	Left Back

George Moorhouse (born May 4, 1901 in Liverpool,England; died July 13, 1982 in Long Beach, New York) is, reputedly, the first Englishman to appear in a FIFA World Cup. He spent most of his playing career in the United States and earned seven caps with the U.S. national team. He was a member of the U.S. teams at the 1930 FIFA World Cup and 1934 FIFA World Cup. Moorhouse was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986.

Club career

A native of England, Moorhouse served in the British Merchant Marine during the First World War. After the war, he decided to try his luck in football. Predominantly left sided, Moorhouse had an unsuccesful trial with Leeds United. However, he did play two first team matches (December 26, 1921 versus Ashington and January 28, 1922 versus Accrington Stanley) whilst with Tranmere Rovers in the old Third Division North during the 1921-22 season. He then played with the Rovers' reserve team in the Cheshire League.^[1]

In 1923 he emigrated to Canada, eventually gaining a position with the Montreal Canadian Pacific Railway team. He spent only a few months with Montreal before transferring to the Brooklyn Wanderers of the American Soccer League (ASL). Once again, he saw time in only a handful of games before moving to New York Giants of the ASL. He spent the next eight seasons with the Giants, scoring 45 goals in over 250 games.^[2] He then signed with New York Americans of the new American Soccer League, leading that side to two U.S. Open Cup triumphs in the 1930s.^[3]

National team

Moorhouse earned his first cap in a 6-1 victory over Canada on November 6, 1926. While he was not called into the team for either of the U.S. games in 1928, he was selected for the U.S. squad at the 1930 FIFA World Cup. The Americans accepted the offer from FIFA to participate in the World Cup and Moorhouse would play in all three matches in Uruguay as a defender. The first U.S. game, a 3-0 victory over Belgium on July 13, 1930 at Parque Central in Montevideo, made Moorhouse the first native-born Englishman to play in the World Cup. Moorhouse then played the next two matches as the U.S. went to the semifinals only to fall to Argentina in a particularly physical game. Several U.S. players were injured and the team finished with only eight fit field players and a lame goalkeeper as substitutes were not allowed.

The U.S. did not have any internatioal matches until the 1934 FIFA World Cup in Italy. Moorhouse was selected as team captain for the cup. Because the U.S. had applied late for entry into the Cup, the team had to play a qualification match against Mexico in Italy. The U.S. won, 4-2, but was eliminated in the first round by Italy.

He was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1986.

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