Soccer in the United States

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Youth soccer in small-town Indiana.
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Youth soccer in small-town Indiana.

Soccer, also known internationally as football, has long been a popular recreational sport in the United States, but professional soccer has been less popular there than in much of the rest of the world. Soccer remains highly popular in the U.S. as a youth sport, played by both boys and girls usually under age 12: so much so that the term "soccer mom" entered the American vernacular.

Until recently, American soccer was more of a regional phenomenon than it is today. Soccer flourished in hotbeds such as New Jersey, St. Louis, Southern California, and in areas with large immigrant populations that grew up with soccer and football in their homelands. But soccer is now gradually gaining popularity across the country, partially due to youth programs, the creation of a respectable pro league, and the success of the national teams.

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[edit] History of soccer in the U.S.

The first football club in the United States was the Oneida Football Club of Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1862. It is often said that this was the first club to play association football outside Britain. However, the Oneidas were formed before the English Football Association (FA); it is not known what rules they used[1] and the club wound up within the space of a few years. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the club is often credited with inventing the "Boston Game", which both allowed players to kick a round ball along the ground, and to pick it up and run with it.

The first U.S. match known to have been inspired by FA rules was a game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869, although the game included features such as extremely physical tackling and teams of 20 each. Other colleges emulated this development, but all of these were converted to rugby by the mid-1870s and would soon become famous as early bastions of American football. (For more details see: History of American football.)

Early soccer leagues in the U.S. mostly used the name football leagues: for example, the American Football Association (founded in 1884), the American Amateur Football Association (1893), the American League of Professional Football (1894), the National Association Foot Ball League (1895), and the Southern New England Football League (1914). However, the word "soccer" was beginning to catch on, and the St Louis Soccer League was a significant regional competition between 1907 and 1939. What is now the United States Soccer Federation was originally the U.S. Football Association, formed in 1913 by the merger of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football Association. The governing body of the sport in the U.S. did not have the word soccer in its name until 1945, when it became the U.S. Soccer Football Association. It did not drop the word football from its name until 1974, when it became the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Two further football leagues were started in the 1967. It is thought that the sudden re-emergence of interest was due to England's victory in the 1966 FIFA World Cup, a phenomenon which was also seen in other English-speaking countries. The two leagues which were started were the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League. These merged to form the North American Soccer League, which eventually folded in 1984.

[edit] American soccer today

Professional soccer has expanded somewhat in recent years, beginning in the mid-1990s. The 1994 FIFA World Cup was played in the United States for the first time, winning the sport more recognition. In the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the United States team did surprisingly well which also succeeded in winning more converts. The United States women's national team is one of the best in the world.

A number of American soccer leagues have been attempted; today the largest is Major League Soccer, which has had some success, but still remains relatively insignificant in the national sporting spectrum. Other leagues, such as the Primera División de México and the English Premier League, are highly competitive with MLS for fans.

The league structure of soccer in the United States is significantly different from that used in almost all the rest of the world, but similar to that used by other North American team sports leagues, in that there is no system of promotion and relegation between lower and higher leagues but rather a minor league system. The playoffs employed by the leagues differ from most European championships, but are more popular in the Western Hemisphere.

Despite the U.S. teams' recent successes in the sport, its popularity still lags behind American football, NASCAR, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and even tennis. The 2005 MLS championship game had a Nielsen rating of 1.0, according to an article in Soccer New England. The championship of American football, the Super Bowl, typically draws a rating of at least 40.

On the other hand, the English- and Spanish-language telecasts of the 2006 FIFA World Cup final match combined to attract an estimated 16.9 million American viewers, comparable to the average viewership of the 2005 World Series of Major League Baseball, according to The New York Times. Interestingly, Univision paid more than three times as much for the Spanish-language television rights for the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups as Disney's ABC and ESPN paid for the English-language rights to the same competitions.[1]

Many writers have speculated on why soccer is not as popular in the U.S. as it is in other countries. Theories include that other sports cornered the market before professional soccer could prosper; that soccer is a "foreign game" [2]; that Americans do not dominate the game; that there are too many draws; and that there is not enough scoring [3]. A common complaint among Americans is that soccer is "boring" [4] [5].

Another factor in soccer's historic lack of popularity in the U.S. lies with the nature of American youth sport, which is primarily centered around community programs in the pre-teen years and secondary school sport thereafter. For youth in the U.S., both soccer and American football are played in the fall (autumn) and a youth generally cannot devote time to both. Until the 1980s, most high schools in the U.S. offered only American football rather than soccer, and youth soccer programs were extremely rare until the 1970s. Generations of Americans grew up with virtually no exposure to the sport.

At the high school level, most soccer teams are forced to play in high school football stadiums. These venues often have non-ideal playing dimensions, especially in width. The playing surface of an American football field is 53⅓ yards (160 ft or 48.8 m) wide, nearly 20 metres less than a standard soccer pitch. The playing conditions are also less than ideal for soccer, especially in stadiums that use artificial turf, and the football markings are often embedded into the field, creating a very ugly look for soccer. For example, in Texas, the high school championship games are played on artificial turf at Round Rock ISD Stadium in Round Rock. The football-first attitude, especially at the scholastic levels, has greatly hindered soccer from becoming popular.

In college, it is even worse as soccer has to play in the fall and compete with college football. See the college soccer article for more information.

In recent decades, more and more pre-teen youth sport organizations have turned to soccer as either a supplement to or a replacement for American football in their programs. Soccer is far more economical for a cash-strapped youth organization than American football (far less player protection, fewer officials and less complex field equipment is required in soccer) while at the same the insurance risks associated with American football far surpass that of soccer. Simultaneously, with increased urbanization, American high schools have grown to the point where most offer soccer as well as American football in their autumn sports seasons.

The result is that in the past few decades, the participants of these expanded programs have become today's American soccer athletes who have representation in many of the top leagues in Europe as well as MLS. The U.S. men's squad has grown from a perennial also-ran to a more respected status, though true recognition has to wait until the day it can seriously aim for a placement in a major tournament.

Women's soccer, however, never had American football to siphon off potential participants at the youth and scholastic levels, although other sports such as basketball and softball attract many great female athletes. This relative lack of attention afforded the women's game in traditional soccer-playing countries may have partly led to the U.S. Women's National Team's historical dominance in international competition. Other factors include: 1) Title IX, requiring college athetics programs to include women' athletics, 2) the relative equality (and especially rejection of hardened gender roles) for women in the United States relative to many other countries, and 3) the abundance of female athletic talent in the United States.

Because of these factors, more and more Americans, having played the game in their youth, are now avid spectators, especially in the Northeast, South Florida, and California. Also, as Latin American immigration is increasing, so is the popularity of soccer.

[edit] American soccer associations

[edit] State and local associations

[edit] American teams

The following national teams of U.S. unincorporated territories compete in their corresponding regions. Their governing bodies are either member or associate in the corresponding regional federations. For all but American Samoa, players for these territories are, like most local residents, U.S. citizens. Natives of American Samoa are U.S. nationals, but not U.S. citizens.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ "One World Cup" by Steve Sailer, The American Conservative, July 17, 2006. Retrieved July 16, 2006.
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