Billy Gonsalves

In 1927, Boston Soccer Club ("Wonder Workers") of the American Soccer League (ASL) signed Gonsalves. Nineteen years old at the time, Gonsalves joined a team which had taken second in the ASL the previous season and was stocked with talented international players. Finding it difficult to break into the starting lineup, Gonsalves did not play a game with Boston until Christmas Eve. However, given the chance, he grabbed it and scored a goal two minutes later. He went on to find the net six times in his next twenty games. That season the Wonder Workers also took the league title. Gonsalves spent one more season with the 'Wonder Workers' before moving to the Fall River F.C. of his hometown in 1929. From the time he joined the 'Marksmen' until the team merged with the New York Soccer Club in the summer of 1930 to form the New York Yankees, Gonsalves played seventy-five games and scored forty-nine goals. Additionally, he was the team's assists leader. While playing with the 'Marksmen', Gonsalves formed a lethal striking partnership with another local player, Bert Patenaude. The two led Fall River to the National Challenge Cup title in 1930 and 1931. Overall, Gonslaves won the tournament a record eight times. The onset of the Great Depression and the Soccer Wars had taken a toll on the ASL and teams began to merge or fold. The 'Marksmen', one of the strongest ASL teams, had merged with the New York Soccer Club to form the New York Yankees in 1930. Then in 1931, the Yankees…