A Brief History Of Soccer In The US

By Gills Andrew


Even though soccer is not the sport in the US, the history of soccer in the US is among the longest around, right next to those of the English or even the Scottish. After the English attempted to form some rules for that game of soccer, they were soon taken to the new World, where Americans learned to like this rising sport, right alongside another game that grew strong roots in America in those days: baseball. Actually, the American Football Association may be the second oldest sports league in the USA, following the Mlb one.

Obviously, a brief history of soccer in US didn't begin with a professional league though (when it comes to what we should call professional today). The American Football Association, started out in 1884, was a semi-professional competition involving New England and some Midwest areas also it would be a rather chaotic environment to experience soccer in, but still it had been there and progressing with each year.

A parallel soccer organization, the American Amateur Football Association was founded around the same time frame and the two coexisted until 1913, when they merged into the US Football Association, the first fully professional soccer organization throughout the history of soccer in the US.

The United States football association (or USFA) was one of the first to become listed on FIFA and as such, America team participated in early World Cups, even though the game was starting to become outshined by baseball or basketball.

With American football also increasing, the business adopted a brand new name to prevent any confusion and called itself the United States Soccer Football Association. However, the United States soccer history would soon witness a brand new change in its governing body's name in 1974, once the USSFA dropped "Football" from the tag and instead adopted the title of United States Soccer Federation, which is still used today.

Who invented soccer? So many will be amaze, when the history of soccer in the US starts so early, how come soccer is not the main sport in USA? Well the simple truth is how the rather modest performances in the men's national side early on in the 20th century, combined with the high rise of baseball, basketball, football and hockey, resulted in the country soon lost interest in soccer and since American kids had a lot of alternatives, soccer slowly went of fashion.

However, using the increasingly good performances from the US men's soccer team and the huge success of the women's soccer team (who were able to generate the very first trophies within the history of soccer in US and is still one of the world powers hanging around today), soccer is climbing to its rightful place and with increasingly more American kids favoring it in school as a start-up sport, things look bright for future years of us soccer.




About the Author:



Load disqus comments

0 comments