Soccer in the United States

CenturyLink Field, home of Seattle Sounders FC

Soccer, fully known as association football, has long been a popular sport in the United States. As a spectator sport it is overshadowed and not considered by many to be among the "big four" major-league team sports.

Overview

Professional association football 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. But a recent review of attendance shows that Major League Soccer is enjoying higher per game attendance than basketball and ice hockey.

Although MLS is also much younger than most other countries' first divisions, and has 18 teams in 2011, 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 power-houses of 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 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 Fall River Rovers were among one the few clubs to win both the National Challenge Cup and the American Cup.

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 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 football", 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 United States today

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 in 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 currently ranked first in the FIFA Women's World Rankings, have won two of the five FIFA Women's World Cups held thus far (in 1991 and 1999), and have also won gold medals in three of the four Olympic women's football tournaments held to date(1996, 2004, 2008). The crowd of over 90,000 at the Rose Bowl for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup 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 the current 2011 season has 16 teams in the U.S. and two in Canada, with expansion planned to bring the league to 19 teams by the 2012 season (the Montreal Impact is the confirmed 19th team) and possibly 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. possession that has its own national federation), and two in Canada.

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. 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 current 2011 season) 57 teams in the U.S., eight 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 in the United States is also played at the professional level. The professional first-division women's soccer league in the U.S. is Women's Professional Soccer, which has operated exclusively in the United States since its launch in 2009 with seven teams. The league has experienced considerable instability in its first three seasons. 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 (at least for the time being) 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.

Currently, two independent semi-professional leagues form the second tier of women's soccer—the USL's W-League and the 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 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 (except for private high schools in Texas, which use FIFA rules), 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.

Popularity of soccer in the United States

Leagues outside the United States and international soccer have also become more popular in the last decade, largely due to increased television coverage of soccer from around the world in the United States. In addition to increased coverage from the traditional media, the U.S. has several national networks devoted mostly or completely to covering the sport. Soccer-specific channels like Fox Soccer and its spinoff channel Fox Soccer Plus (the latter not exclusively devoted to soccer), Gol TV (available in both Spanish and English), Spanish-language channels like Telemundo, Telefutura, Galavisión, ESPN Deportes, Fox Deportes and mainstream sports networks ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and Fox Sports Net provide weekly coverage of England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A, Germany's Bundesliga, the FA Cup, the Football League Cup, the Football League Championship, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, the CONCACAF Champions League, the SuperLiga, and many more competitions. In addition, these networks also provide coverage of the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA European Football Championship, Copa América, the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the FIFA Confederations Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, United States men's, women's, and youth national team matches when these events take place. Finally, in addition to matches, these channels provide news programs and other information previously unavailable to U.S. viewers. The rise of these media outlets means that soccer fans living in the United States now have near constant access to programming about the sport in a way comparable to those living in Europe or Latin America.

The English and Spanish-language telecasts of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final combined to attract an estimated 16.9 million American viewers, comparable to the average viewership of the 2005 World Series. Interestingly, Univision paid more than three times as much for the Spanish-language television rights for the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups as ABC paid for the English-language rights to the same competitions. In 2007, the CONCACAF Gold Cup attracted record television viewership, and in the case of one particular group stage match, it was the most-watched primetime program on any network that night among 18-49 males. The Univision telecast of the final between the United States and Mexico was the third-most watched Spanish-language program of all-time in the United States, beaten only by two FIFA World Cup finals matches.

Increasing numbers of Americans, having played the game in their youth, are now avid spectators. Soccer is popular primarily in warmer climates of the US where winter sports are not followed due to lack of interest, thus giving room for soccer's attention. Most cities with MLS teams have large fan bases, and cities with USL teams have support on par with minor league teams in other sports. In addition, as Latin American immigration increases throughout the entire nation, so does the popularity of soccer.

In recent decades, more and more youth sports organizations have turned to soccer as either a supplement to or a replacement for American football in their programs. This is primarily for economic reasons, as cash-strapped programs find it more difficult to justify the high costs of American football, due to the large amount of expensive equipment required, while at the same time the insurance risks associated with American football are far greater. Simultaneously, with increased urbanization, American high schools have grown to the point where most offer both sports in their fall sports seasons. Due to the rising number of youths playing, the term soccer mom is used in American social, cultural and political discourse, broadly referring to a middle- or upper-middle class woman working and having school-age children.

With careful cost controls, soccer-specific stadiums, and limited expansion, some MLS clubs became profitable for the first time in the mid 2000s, and Forbes magazine found that three clubs were already valued at $40 million or more, with the Los Angeles Galaxy worth $100 million. The league's 2007 and 2009 expansion to Toronto and Seattle, respectively, have proven highly successful, with league-leading ticket and merchandise sales, capped by a sold-out attendances for friendlies against Real Madrid of Spain and Chelsea of England. In addition, the 2009 World Football Challenge drew large crowds around the country. Chelsea's four-game stint in America drew record crowds for a visiting foreign team.

The United States has also shown a heightened interest in international soccer. UEFA Euro 2008 was highly successful, especially for a competition that did not feature the United States or David Beckham's England. The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup Final featuring the United States attracted almost 4 million viewers on ESPN, making it the fourth-most-watched U.S. men's national team game in the history of the network. The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal matches drew over 82,000 to Cowboys Stadium. In addition, the 2010 UEFA Champions League final was broadcast live on the Fox Network, marking the first time in history that a match between two European club soccer teams was televised on American English-language broadcast television.

Landon Donovan's dramatic game winning goal against Algeria that advanced the US team to the knockout stage of the 2010 World Cup resulted in jubilant celebrations across the United States and may lead to increased popularity of soccer in the nation. Also the 2010 World Cup final game between Spain and the Netherlands drew 24 million people in the United States for viewership. More recently, the US played twice in East Rutherford, NJ, drawing 77,000 fans in attendance each game.

American men in foreign leagues

Since the early 1990s, many American men have found opportunities playing soccer at the highest levels of foreign leagues. Among the first Americans to become regulars in foreign leagues were John Harkes at Sheffield Wednesday in England, Eric Wynalda at Saarbrücken in Germany, Kasey Keller at Millwall F.C. in England, and Earnie Stewart at NAC Breda in the Netherlands (Stewart is a special case; he is the Netherlands-born son of American and Dutch parents, and grew up in the Dutch football system). Stewart is now one of two Americans who hold executive positions within Dutch football—Stewart with AZ, and American-born Alex Pama with SC Cambuur.

The following is a list of prominent Americans playing in foreign leagues:

In Austria's Erste Liga

• Shawn Barry (LASK Linz)
• Seth Moses (SC Rheindorf Altach)

In Belgium's Pro League

• Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht)

In Belgium's Second Division

• Tristan Bowen (Roeselare)
• Devann Yao (Boussu Dour Borinage)

In Bosnia's Premier League

• Danijal Brkovic (Velež)

In Colombia's Primera A

• Diego Restrepo (América de Cali)
• Kevin Piedrahita (América de Cali)

In the Czech Republic's Gambrinus liga

• Stefan Jerome (Sigma Olomouc) - on loan from Fort Lauderdale Strikers

In Denmark's Superliga

• Clarence Goodson (Brøndby)
• Conor O'Brien (SønderjyskE)
• Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjælland)
• Chris Rolfe (Aalborg)
• Brad Rusin (HB Køge)
• Marcus Tracy (Aalborg)

In Denmark's 1st Division

• Babajide Ogunbiyi (Viborg)

In England's Premier League

• Clint Dempsey (Fulham)
• Brad Friedel (Tottenham Hotspur)
• Brad Guzan (Aston Villa)
• Marcus Hahnemann (Everton)
• Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers)
• Tim Howard (Everton)
• Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa)
• Zak Whitbread (Norwich City)

In England's Football League Championship

• Conor Doyle (Derby County)
• Robbie Findley (Nottingham Forest)
• Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City)

In England's Football League One

• Mike Grella (Brentford)
• Anton Peterlin (Walsall)
• Frank Simek (Carlisle United)

In England's Football League Two

• Jemal Johnson (Southend United)
• Jon-Paul Pittman (Crawley Town)

In Finland's Veikkausliiga

• Giuseppe Funicello (VPS)
• Etchu Tabe (RoPS)
• Josh Wicks (Mariehamn)

In France's Ligue 1

• Quentin Westberg (Évian)

In Germany's Fußball-Bundesliga

• Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund)
• John Anthony Brooks (Hertha Berlin)
• Timothy Chandler (Nürnberg)
• Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96)
• Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim)
• Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04)
• Daniel Williams (Hoffenheim)
• David Yelldell (Bayer Leverkusen)

In Germany's 2. Fußball-Bundesliga

• Villyan Bijev (Fortuna Düsseldorf) - on loan from Liverpool
• Edson Buddle (Ingolstadt 04)
• Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt)
• Luis Robles (Karlsruhe)
• Matt Taylor (SC Paderborn 07)
• Bobby Wood (1860 Munich)

In Germany's 3. Liga

• Amaechi Igwe (SV Babelsberg 03)
• Preston Zimmerman (SV Darmstadt 98)

In Israel's Ligat HaAl

• Leonard Krupnik (Maccabi Netanya)
• Ryan Adeleye (Hapoel Beer Sheva)
• Bryan Gerzicich (Ironi Kiryat Shmona)

In Italy's Serie A

• Michael Bradley (Chievo)

In Mexico's Primera División

• Daniel Antunez (Estudiantes Tecos)
• DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla)
• Jonathan Bornstein (UANL)
• Edgar Castillo (América)
• Joe Corona (Club Tijuana)
• Herculez Gomez (Estudiantes Tecos)
• Sonny Guadarrama (Atlante)
• Frankie López (Jaguares)
• Ernest Nungaray (Morelia)
• Michael Orozco Fiscal (San Luis)
• Adrian Ruelas (Jaguares) - on loan from Santos Laguna
• José Francisco Torres (Pachuca)

In Mexico's Liga de Ascenso

• Marco Vidal (León)

In the Netherlands' Eredivisie

• Jozy Altidore (AZ)

In the Netherlands' Eerste Divisie

• Charles Kazlauskas (Helmond Sport)

In Norway's Tippeligaen

• Joseph Bendik (Sogndal)
• Sean Cunningham (Molde)
• Mikkel Diskerud (Stabæk)
• Josh Gatt (Molde)

In Peru's Primera División

• Diego Chávarri (Sporting Cristal)

In Portugal's Primeira Liga

• Oguchi Onyewu (Sporting)

In Portugal's Liga de Honra

• Tony Taylor (Atlético)

In Russia's Premier League

• Eugene Starikov (Tom Tomsk) - on loan from Zenit Saint Petersburg

In Scotland's Premier League

• Alejandro Bedoya (Rangers)
• Carlos Bocanegra (Rangers)
• Dominic Cervi (Celtic)
• Maurice Edu (Rangers)

In Sweden's Allsvenskan

• Ryan Miller (Halmstad)
• Samuel Petrone (Mjällby)

During 1990 Dale Mulholland played for Lokomotiv Moscow in 1 Soviet Football League. [1], [2]

U.S. women professional players today

The success of the women's national team has not translated into success for women's professional soccer in the United States. The first attempt at a national women's soccer league was the Women's United Soccer Association. It featured successful American players Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, and many other national team stars including Germany's Birgit Prinz. The WUSA ceased operation at the end of 2003. Many of those involved in the league worked to restart a professional women's league in 2009 under the banner of Women's Professional Soccer, initially with seven teams. The league started the 2010 season with eight teams, as one charter team, the Los Angeles Sol, folded and two new teams joined. However, another charter team, Saint Louis Athletica, folded during the season, bringing WPS back to its original number of seven teams. The 2009 season was successful, with Sky Blue FC winning the title in Cinderella fashion and the league met its financial goals. The 2010 season, however, saw considerably more instability. In addition to the in-season demise of Saint Louis Athletica, champions FC Gold Pride folded after the season, and the Chicago Red Stars failed to meet financial requirements to stay in WPS and regrouped in the WPSL. The Western New York Flash joined in 2011, making WPS a six-team league operating entirely along the East Coast. The W-League of the United Soccer Leagues and the WPSL have also had some success with teams in cities all across the country.

America's approach to growing the game among women has served as a model for other countries' development programs for women at all levels. The relative lack of attention afforded the women's game in traditional soccer-playing countries may also have contributed to the United States' early dominance of the international women's game. Another contributing factor is the role of women within American society, which includes relative equality (especially rejecting hardened gender roles) for women in the United States relative to many other countries. This is also reflected in official government policy regarding women in athletics, specifically Title IX, which requires college and public school athletics programs to support men's and women's athletics equally. A final factor is the lack of competition from American football for female athletic talent; since American football is generally not played by females, far more high-caliber female athletes are available to play soccer.

American soccer leagues and associations

• Major League Soccer
• United Soccer Leagues
• National Premier Soccer League
• Women's Premier Soccer League
• Women's United Soccer Association (defunct)
• Women's Professional Soccer
• Major Indoor Soccer League (current)
• Major Indoor Soccer League (defunct)
• Regional Indoor Soccer League
• Professional Arena Soccer League
• Premier Arena Soccer League
• Xtreme Soccer League (defunct)
• American Indoor Soccer League (defunct)
• National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association
• National Soccer Coaches Association of America
• American Youth Soccer Organization
• United States Youth Soccer Association
• United States Adult Soccer Association
• United States Soccer Federation

United States national teams

The United States men's and women's national soccer teams represent the United States in international competition.

Men's national team

Main articles: United States men's national soccer team and United States men's national soccer team cup results

The men's national team competes in the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Confederations Cup, in addition to the CONCACAF Gold Cup and other competitions by invitation.

Until the 1990s, the United States national team were regarded as one of the world's weaker teams. Highlights before the latter stages of the 20th Century, were firstly finishing third in the first ever World Cup held in 1930. After qualifying for the 1934 World Cup, and withdrawing in 1938, the next World Cup participation came in the 1950 tournament, causing an upset by beating England 1-0 in their fourth group match. After 1950, the USA never qualified for the World Cup again until 1990.

After the 1990 World Cup, the USA qualified automatically as hosts in the 1994 World Cup, losing to Brazil in the round of sixteen. From then on, the team has qualified for every World Cup since, up to and including the 2010 World Cup, with the best performance before 2010 being to reach the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup, losing to Germany.

On the regional stage, the national team has also improved, with a record up to 2009 of reaching the final of the biannual CONCACAF Gold Cup eight times since 1989, winning it four times, in 1991, 2002, 2005, and 2007. As 2007 CONCACAF winners, they also progressed to the final of the 2009 edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, narrowly losing in the final 3-2 to five times World Champions Brazil.

Womens national team

Main article: United States women's national soccer team

The women's national team played its first match on August 18, 1985. It competes in the FIFA Women's World Cup, the Summer Olympics, and the Algarve Cup, in addition to the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup and other competitions by invitation. The United States women's team has been one of the most dominant in the history of women's soccer, having won two World Cups (in 1991 and 1999), three Olympic gold medals (in 1996, 2004, and 2008), and eight Algarve Cups (in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011).

National teams of U.S. unincorporated territories

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.

• American Samoa national soccer team
• Guam national football team
• Northern Mariana Islands national football team
• Puerto Rico national football team
• U.S. Virgin Islands national soccer team

See also

• United States soccer league system
• College soccer
• Major League Soccer

References

• "American Exceptionalism: Soccer and American Football" by Ivan Waddington and Martin Roderick, 2 Sept. 1996, retrieved 6 Dec. 2005.