U.S. Soccer

The history of soccer in the United States is a surprising and mesmerizing story. Despite being one of the main destinations for immigrants when sports expanded around the world, the United States, the birthplace of basketball, baseball and football, has never been as obsessed with the sport of soccer as the rest of the globe.

However, the U.S. has never lost touch with the sport, and in the last 30 years they have made incredible strides to become one of the most successful soccer nations in the world.

Early stages

The first soccer club to be formed in the United States was the Boston Oneida. Established in 1862, this club was also one of the first outside of England, and in 1884 the U.S. Soccer Federation tried to standardize the various rules of the game in use at the time, and in the same year organized the first international match outside of the British Isles - the U.S. team against Canada.

In 1914 the U.S. Soccer Federation (now the U.S. Soccer Federation USSF) joined FIFA as the official governing body of the sport. That same year, the National Challenge Cup (now the U.S. Open Cup) was created. The U.S. team's officially sanctioned national team matches came in 1916, when it traveled to Sweden and Norway to compete against rivals.

Soccer was popular in the United States in the early 1900s only in the racially integrated areas of the East Coast, as American universities favored English and later American football over soccer. But the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis made soccer a showcase sport, and the city became a hotbed for the sport, as did some Midwestern cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh.

Participation in the first global event

In 1930, the first FIFA World Cup? Held in Uruguay, the U.S. was one of 13 teams invited to participate and reached the semifinals after defeating Belgium and Paraguay in quick succession, where they suffered a 1-6 loss to Argentina, though that run to the quarterfinals remains the team's best World Cup finish to date.

American soccer faded over the next half-century or so, although they did put in a landmark performance in Brazil in 1950, beating a rampant England 1-0 with a hastily assembled team of semi-professionals. Many still consider that match, played in Belo Horizonte, to be the biggest upset in FIFA World Cup history.

The North American Soccer League (NASL) was established in 1968, but it wasn't until three-time FIFA World Cup winner Pele made a surprise arrival and joined the New York Cosmos that U.S. soccer began its true renaissance.

Pele and the renaissance of U.S. soccer

The North American Soccer League had a knack for attracting the world's top stars, which initially contributed to the renaissance of U.S. soccer. Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, Carlos Alberto, Johan Cruyff, Eusebio, Trevor Francis. Johan Neeskens, and others followed Pele to the area, largely raising the profile of soccer at a time when American sports are intertwined.

Most importantly, it also fostered a renaissance in youth soccer, which has consistently had a high percentage of young people, both male and female, playing the game ever since. The resurgence of U.S. soccer reached a laudable height in 1990, when the U.S. men's national team advanced to the FIFA World Cup final round for the first time in 40 years, five years after the North American Soccer League was officially abolished.

The following year, the U.S. women's national team won the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup in China. The team has remained at the pinnacle of the sport ever since, and the U.S. men's soccer team has competed in every major international soccer tournament since.

Soccer comes to the U.S.

In 1994, the U.S. got up close and personal with surprising enthusiasm for the FIFA World Cup, and they still hold the record for the total number of spectators on hand. As hosts, the team advanced to the knockout rounds of the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1930, only to lose 1-0 to subsequent champions Brazil on Independence Day.

Five years later, the United States once again hosted one of its most successful tournaments, with the FIFA Women's World Cup reaching unprecedented heights in popularity as well as media attention. In front of 90,000 enthusiastic fans in Los Angeles, the U.S. team hoisted the Gold Cup for the second time, making them the most iconic team in the world in a sport that is growing by leaps and bounds.

The success achieved by the national team also facilitated and secured the creation of the top U.S. domestic men's and women's leagues, Major League Soccer and Major League Women's Soccer. While there have always been questions about their long-term financial viability, both leagues have proven to be very successful, providing American players with the opportunity to train themselves at a high level of competition.