Soccer in The United States - Overview

Overview

Professional soccer has been less popular in the United States than most other parts of the world. Major League Soccer, the United States' professional first-division league, is not, in general, as well-attended as the major leagues of American football and baseball. However, a 2012 attendance review of shows that Major League Soccer is enjoying higher per game attendance than basketball and ice hockey. Note that this can be attributed to the larger seating capacities of soccer stadiums as opposed to basketball/hockey arenas.

Although MLS is also much younger than most other countries' first divisions, and has 19 teams in 2012, it is already the 12th most-attended premier division in the entire world. In 2006 MLS broke its all-time record for attendance at a regular-season match, which saw 92,650 spectators fill the Los Angeles Coliseum on a Sunday in August; although that claim is somewhat misattributed to the MLS game as it was one of two games played that night, the second being a match between two very popular clubs from the Spanish-speaking world: Spain's Barcelona and Mexico's Guadalajara. On August 1, 2009, a friendly match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Barcelona at the Rose Bowl, drew a crowd of 93,137 fans. The last time a soccer match drew that many people in the United States was during the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Since 2007, with the arrival of international superstars such as David Beckham and Thierry Henry, and the Mexican idol Cuauhtémoc Blanco, attendance records for specific MLS teams and stadiums continue to rise. Additionally, the United States and Mexico national teams have been playing in front of crowds in excess of 60,000 in the U.S. in recent years. Television viewership of club and international soccer in the U.S. is at an all-time high, with major sports networks regularly covering games in some fashion and several other channels dedicated mostly or entirely to the sport.

Oneida Football Club has been named as the first soccer club in the United States but there is still discussion on what rules the club used, and it broke 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 University and Rutgers University on November 6, 1869, which was won by Rutgers 6-4. The FA rules were followed in the Princeton-Rutgers contest: participants were only allowed to kick the ball and each side had 25 players. 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.

The earliest examples of governance in the sport started in 1884, when the American Football Association (AFA) was incarnated. The AFA sought to standardize rules for the local soccer teams based in the Northeastern United States, particularly in northern New Jersey and southern New York state. By 1886, the AFA had spread in influence into Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. With the creation, the AFA created the first non-league cup in American soccer history, known as the American Cup. For the first dozen years, clubs from New Jersey and Massachusetts dominated the competition. The tournament set a foundation for a new, rival association to rival the AFA, known as the American Amateur Football Association (AAFA). Founded in October 1911, the association began creating its own soccer tournament, known as the American Amateur Football Association Cup, and in 1913, both the AAFA and AFA applied for membership in FIFA, the international governing body for soccer.

Within a year of its founding, the AFA organized the first non-league cup in U.S. soccer history, known as the American Cup. Clubs from New Jersey and Massachusetts dominated the first twelve years. It would not be until 1897 that a club from outside those two states won the American Cup. Philadelphia Manz brought the title to Pennsylvania for the first time. Due to internal conflicts within the AFA, the cup was suspended in 1899, and it was not resumed until 1906. The conflicts within the AFA led to a movement to create a truly national body to oversee American soccer. Drawing on both its position as the oldest soccer organization and the status of the American Cup, the AFA argued that it should be the nationally recognized body.

Early soccer leagues in the U.S. mostly used the name "football," 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).

In October 1911, a competing body, the American Amateur Football Association (AAFA) was created. The association quickly spread outside of the Northeast and created its own cup in 1912, the American Amateur Football Association Cup. In 1913, both the AFA and AAFA applied for membership in FIFA, the international governing body for soccer. Later that year, the AAFA gained an edge over the AFA when several AFA organizations moved to the AAFA. On April 5, 1913, the AAFA reorganized as the United States Football Association (USFA), presently known as the United States Soccer Federation. FIFA quickly granted a provisional membership and USFA began exerting its influence on the sport. This led to the establishment of the National Challenge Cup, which still exists as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, that fall. The National Challenge Cup quickly grew to overshadow the American Cup. However, both cups were played simultaneously for the next ten years. Declining respect for the AFA led to the withdrawal of several associations from its cup in 1917. Further competition came in 1924 when USFA created the National Amateur Cup. That spelled the death knell for the American Cup. It played its last season in 1924.

Common confusion between the terms "American football" and "association football" eventually led to a more domestic widespread use of the term "soccer" to regard association football. Originally seen as a British slang term for "association ", the use of "soccer" began appearing in the late 1910s and early 1920s. A noticeable example was the American Soccer League (ASL), which formed in 1919. 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 United States Soccer Football Association. It did not drop the word football from its name until 1974, when it became the United States Soccer Federation, often going simply as U.S. Soccer.

During the days of the ASL, the league was seen as widely popular, and considered to be the second most popular sports league in the United States, only behind Major League Baseball. However, internal debates between the USFA and ASL led to a known "soccer war" and the demise of both the league and the sport in the United States, entering a prolonged time of obscurity.

What is now the United States Soccer Federation was originally the United States Football Association, formed on April 5, 1913.

Two more soccer leagues were started in 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League. These merged to form the North American Soccer League in 1968, which survived until 1984. The NASL also ran an indoor league in the latter years. Indoor soccer was a great success in the 1980s and 1990s, in part due to the effort of the NASL. When the NASL (both outdoor and indoor) folded, other leagues, including the Major Indoor Soccer League stepped in to meet the demand. Twenty-five years hence, the latest version of the MISL folded, and was replaced by the National Indoor Soccer League, the Professional Arena Soccer League, and the Xtreme Soccer League.

== Soccer in the U Interest in soccer within the United States has grown rapidly starting in the 1990s. This has been attributed to the fact that the 1994 FIFA World Cup was played in the United States, the first time the event was held in the U.S. This won the sport more attention from both the media and casual sports fans. As part of the United States' bid to host the World Cup in 1994, U.S. Soccer pledged to create a professional outdoor league for the first time since the collapse of the NASL a decade earlier. That effort culminated in the launch of Major League Soccer in 1996, which helped develop American players in a way that was not possible without a domestic league. Many of these players competed in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where the United States did surprisingly well, finishing in the quarterfinals by beating archrivals Mexico in the Round of 16 and narrowly losing to eventual runners-up Germany in the quarterfinals.

Unlike most soccer playing nations, the growth of the women's game in the U.S.A. has helped increase overall interest in soccer in the United States. Both the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups were held in the United States, and the United States has emerged as one of the best national teams in the world. They are, as of 2012, ranked first in the FIFA Women's World Rankings, have won two of the six FIFA Women's World Cups held thus far (in 1991 and 1999), and have also won gold medals in four of the five Olympic women's soccer tournaments held to date (1996, 2004, 2008, 2012). The crowd of over 90,000 at the Rose Bowl for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final remains the largest crowd in the world ever to witness any women's sporting event.

The professional first-division league in the United States is Major League Soccer, which as of 2012 has 16 teams in the U.S. and three in Canada, with expansion possibly bringing a 20th team by 2013.

The second-tier league is a new incarnation of the North American Soccer League. This league was formed in late 2009, with plans to launch in the 2010 season, by disgruntled team owners from the former second-level league, the USL First Division, after Nike sold its stake in the latter league's parent corporation, the United Soccer Leagues (USL). U.S. Soccer refused to sanction either the First Division or the new NASL for 2010, and the two groups eventually agreed to unite for 2010 only under the banner of USSF Division 2, run directly by U.S. Soccer and including teams from both leagues. U.S. Soccer initially sanctioned the new NASL in November 2010, revoked its sanctioning in January 2011 due to financial issues surrounding the ownership of several teams, and re-sanctioned it in February 2011. The NASL launched with eight teams—five on the U.S. mainland, one in Puerto Rico (a U.S. commonwealth that has its own national federation), and two in Canada. One of the Canadian teams left the NASL after the 2011 season to enter MLS; that team was replaced for 2012 by a U.S.-based team. In 2013, a new version of the New York Cosmos will join the NASL, with a team from Ottawa entering the following year.

Following the USL–NASL feud and a subsequent tightening of U.S. Soccer standards for owners of second-division teams, the USL folded its First and Second Divisions into a new third-level league, USL Pro, which launched in 2011. It began with 15 teams—11 on the U.S. mainland, three in Puerto Rico, and one in the Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda—but due to issues with the health and finances of two of the Puerto Rican owners, the Puerto Rican teams were dropped from the league shortly after the beginning of its first season. It now operates with 11 teams after one of the U.S.-based teams folded following the 2011 season; a new U.S.-based team is planned to enter the league in 2013. The USL operates five leagues in all, spanning the lower divisions of men's professional soccer, as well as women's soccer and youth soccer.

Below USL Pro is the country's semi-professional fourth-division league, the USL Premier Development League, which has (as of the 2012 season) 64 teams in the U.S., nine in Canada, and one in Bermuda. Though the PDL does have some paid players, it also has many teams that are made up entirely or almost entirely of college soccer players who use the league as an opportunity to play competitive soccer in front of professional scouts during the summer, while retaining amateur status and NCAA eligibility.

In addition to MLS and the USL, the United States Adult Soccer Association governs amateur soccer competition for adults throughout the United States, which is effectively the amateur fifth division of soccer in the United States. The USASA sanctions regional tournaments that allow entry into the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the oldest continuous soccer competition in the United States. This annual competition pits teams from all five levels of the American soccer pyramid against each other, similar to England's FA Cup.

Women's soccer has also been played at the professional level, but the U.S. no longer has a fully professional league. The second attempt to establish such a league, Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), first suspended its planned 2012 season and then completely folded that May. WPS, the effective successor to the former Women's United Soccer Association (2001–2003), had operated exclusively in the United States since its launch in 2009 with seven teams. The league experienced considerable instability in its three seasons of operation. One charter team, the Los Angeles Sol, folded after the inaugural 2009 season. The following year saw two charter teams fold—Saint Louis Athletica during the season, and 2010 champions FC Gold Pride after the season. A third charter team, the Chicago Red Stars, could not meet financial criteria to remain in WPS after the 2010 season, and dropped to the second-tier Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL). The league operated with six teams in 2011, with three charter teams joined by two 2010 newcomers and one 2011 newcomer. The season saw a boost following the women's national team's run in the 2011 Women's World Cup, but was also marked by conflict between the league and franchise owner Dan Borislow. He had purchased the Washington Freedom, charter league members, and moved the team to South Florida and renamed it magicJack. The league accused Borislow of not meeting its standards for team operation and failing to pay team bills, while Borislow accused the league of misplaced priorities. After the 2011 season, WPS terminated the franchise. A subsequent legal battle between WPS and Borislow led the league to cancel its 2012 season, although the league hoped to resume in 2013, it ultimately decided to fold.

As of 2012, the top level of women's soccer in the U.S. is the newly-formed WPSL Elite, a semi-pro league established by the WPSL as a response to the troubles plaguing WPS. The league's eight charter teams include six fully professional teams, three of which—the aforementioned Red Stars, Boston Breakers, and Western New York Flash—previously played in WPS. Two independent semi-professional leagues form the second tier of women's soccer—the USL's W-League and the main WPSL, which broke from the W-League in 1997. As of 2011, the W-League has 19 U.S.-based teams and eight Canadian-based teams, while the WPSL has 65 teams in the U.S. only. Both leagues serve roughly the same purpose for women's soccer as the USL's PDL serves for men's soccer, in that they allow collegiate players to maintain NCAA eligibility while continuing to develop their game against quality opponents. There is no current equivalent to the U.S. Open Cup in the women's game.

Despite the growth of men's and women's professional soccer in the United States in the last few decades, by far the largest category of soccer in the United States, at least in terms of participation, is boys' and girls' youth soccer. Though organized locally by organizations all over the United States, there are three main youth soccer organizations working nationwide through affiliated local associations. The United States Youth Soccer Association boasts over three million players between the ages of five and 19, while American Youth Soccer Organization has more than 300,000 players between the ages of four and 19. Finally, the USL offers a number of youth leagues, including the Super-20 League and the Super Y-League, which have almost 1,000 teams and tens of thousands of players from the ages of 13 to 20. This makes soccer one of the most played sports by children in the United States.

The overall league structure 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 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. In addition, teams playing in American soccer leagues are not private clubs founded independently of the league that join a league in order to ensure regular fixtures, but are instead usually franchises of the league itself. Finally, the soccer leagues in the United States also incorporate features common to other American sports leagues, most notably the determination of champions by playoffs between the top teams after the conclusion of a league season. Only recently has MLS moved to a balanced schedule and prior to then used an unbalanced schedule. There has been discussion of introducing promotion and relegation into the MLS within the next 5–10 years. MLS would be the first notable American professional sports league to do so.

However, in several ways, American soccer leagues have become more similar to leagues in the rest of the world in recent years. MLS and USL now allow games to end in ties, which were initially avoided via a penalty shootout if scores were level at the end of play. This was done to avoid alienating mainstream American sports fans, who are not accustomed to tie games, but actually had the unintended consequence of alienating soccer purists who saw the change as an "Americanization" of the sport. MLS began allowing ties in the 2000 season. Additionally, MLS and USL now use upward-counting clocks that do not stop for stoppages in play, and instead add on time before half time and full time. A downward-counting clock that stops for dead balls and ends the game when it reaches zero is still in use in American high school and college soccer, as well as most other American sports, but was and is completely foreign to soccer played outside the United States. MLS adopted the international clock in 2000. Finally, until recently, the front of teams' shirts in MLS and the USL did not bear advertisements, as commercial uniform sponsorship is uncommon in American sports. However, starting in the mid 2000s, clubs were allowed to accept corporate sponsorship on the front of their shirts.

In recent years, many top-division European clubs have elected to spend portions of their pre-season schedule traveling to and scheduling matches in the United States. Clubs such as La Liga champions Real Madrid, English giants Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC, and Serie A side AS Roma have elected to spend their pre-seasons stateside. Aside from being highly attended events for U.S. stadiums, these pre-season fixtures are growing the game in the United States, and allowing American fans a chance to see the biggest teams and players in world soccer today, live and in person.