Soccer in the United States
is the fourth most popular sport in the United States behind American football, basketball, and baseball, respectively. 27% of the US sports fans show an interest in soccer.
The United States Soccer Federation governs most levels of soccer in the United States, including the national teams, professional leagues, and amateur leagues, being the highest soccer authority in the country. The National Collegiate Athletic Association governs most colleges, Although the second level under that at the collegiate level is the NJCAA, which governs two-year college athletics which serve as a pathway for many students to transfer to four-year NCAA schools later. Secondary schools are governed by state-level associations, with the National Federation of State High School Associations setting the rules at that level. The match regulations are generally the same between the three governing bodies although there are many subtle differences.
As of 2023, over 240 million people play soccer in the United States. In 2017, Gallup reported that soccer was the third-most watched team sport in the U.S., behind only basketball and American football.
The highest-level of men's professional soccer in the United States is Major League Soccer. The league's predecessor was the major professional North American Soccer League, which existed from 1968 until 1984. MLS began to play in 1996 with 10 teams and has grown to 30 teams. The MLS season runs from February to November, with the regular-season winner awarded the Supporters' Shield and the post-season winner awarded the MLS Cup. With an average attendance of over 20,000 per game, MLS has the third-highest average attendance of any sports league in the United States after the National Football League and Major League Baseball, and is the seventh-highest attended professional soccer league worldwide. MLS uses franchised clubs similar to other major American sports leagues, rather than the promotion and relegation model used for club soccer in European nations.
The first women's professional soccer league in the United States was formed by Tracey Higgins after the success of the 1999 Women's World Cup. The Women's United Soccer Association ran from 2001 to 2003 and featured many of the World Cup stars, including Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers and Brandi Chastain. Its successor Women's Professional Soccer ran from 2009 to 2012. Currently, the National Women's Soccer League and the USL Super League are the top professional leagues in the country; the NWSL was formed in 2012 with play starting in 2013, and the USL Super League began play in 2024. The NWSL season runs from spring to early fall, while the USL Super League plays the traditional fall to spring schedule.
American soccer fans follow the American national teams in international competition. The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup final drew a record 26.7 million viewers, greater than the final games of the 2014 World Series or the 2015 NBA Finals, and the 2010 Men's World Cup final drew 26.5 million viewers. The women's national team has won four Women's World Cup titles and five gold medals at the Summer Olympics and the men's national team played in every World Cup from 1990 to 2014 and returned to the World Cup in 2022.
Terminology
In the United States, the sport of association football is mainly referred to as "soccer", as the term "football" is primarily used to refer to the sport of American football.History
Beginnings and decline: 1850s–1930s
There has been some debate about the origins of modern soccer in the United States. It has long been held that the modern game entered the States through Ellis Island in the 1860s. However, 2013 research has shown that soccer entered America through the port of New Orleans, as Irish, English, Scottish, Italian and German immigrants brought the game with them. It was in New Orleans that many of the first games of soccer in America were held. The origins of the game in general trace back to ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, or China. It is difficult to say for sure which country was the true origin.Oneida Football Club has been named as the first association football 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 allowed players to both kick a round ball along the ground, and to pick it up and run with it. On the other hand, in 1869, Princeton and Rutgers played the first intercollegiate football game. Although each team had 25 players, the use of a soccer ball and the rules based on the 1863 London Football Association laws arguably make it the first college soccer match and the birth of soccer in the United States.
Nevertheless, the earliest known game of organized soccer in the United States was played on October 11, 1866 in Waukesha, Wisconsin under the 1863 London Football Association laws.
The earliest examples of governance in the sport started in 1884 when the American Football Association 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.
Within a year of its founding, the AFA organized 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. 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 conflicts within the AFA, the cup was suspended in 1899, and it was not resumed until 1906.
Early soccer leagues in the U.S. mostly used the name "football", for example: the AFA, the American Amateur Football Association, the American League of Professional Football, the National Association Foot Ball League, and the Southern New England Football League. Common confusion between the terms American football and association football eventually led to a more domestic widespread use of the term soccer with regard to 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, 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.
In October 1911, a competing body, the American Amateur Football Association was created. The association quickly spread outside of the Northeast and created its own cup in 1912, the American Amateur Football Association Cup.
The conflicts within the AFA led to a movement to create a truly national body to oversee American soccer. In 1913, both the AAFA and AFA applied for membership in FIFA, the international governing body for 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. 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, 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.
During the days of the American Soccer League, 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, the "soccer war" between the USFA and ASL, combined with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, led to the demise of the ASL in 1933, and the demise of the professional sport in the United States; Most will argue that soccer struggled to gain popularity in the United States because the country’s “sports space” had already been dominated by baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey by the early 20th century, however, the sport continued in amateur and semi-professional leagues. The national soccer team competed in the first two FIFA World Cups, managing to qualify for the semifinals of the first tournament and qualifying for the following one in Italy, where the U.S. team was knocked out in the first match by would-be world champions Italy.
Re-emergence and growth: 1960s–today
The prominence of college soccer increased with the NCAA sanctioning an annual men's soccer championship, beginning in 1959 with the inaugural championship won by Saint Louis University.Two professional soccer leagues were started in 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League, which merged to form the North American Soccer League in 1968. The NASL enjoyed a significant boost in popularity when the New York Cosmos signed Pelé to play for three seasons in 1975–77. The Cosmos drew large publicity throughout the late 1970s. Between 1977 and 1980, the Cosmos drew crowds of more than 60,000 on ten occasions, and over 70,000 on seven occasions. The NASL declined during the early 1980s and disbanded in 1984 amidst financial problems. The popularity of indoor soccer peaked in the 1980s, with both the NASL and the Major Indoor Soccer League operating indoor soccer leagues.
The 1970s and 1980s saw increased popularity of the college game. Women's college soccer received a significant boost in 1972 with the passage of Title IX, which mandated equal funding for women's athletic programs, leading to colleges forming NCAA-sanctioned women's varsity teams. A men's match between Saint Louis University and local rival SIU Edwardsville drew a college record 22,512 fans to Busch Stadium on October 30, 1980. By 1984, more colleges played soccer than American football.
In 1967 there were 100,000 people playing soccer in the US; by 1984, that number had grown to over 4 million. Girls high school soccer experienced tremendous growth in playing numbers throughout the 1970s and 1980s—from 10,000 in 1976 to 41,000 in 1980, to 122,000 in 1990.
The soccer matches for the 1984 Summer Olympics were well attended. Five matches drew over 75,000 fans, and two soccer matches at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, California, drew over 100,000 fans. These high attendance figures were one factor that FIFA took into consideration in 1988 when deciding to award the 1994 World Cup to the United States.
Interest in soccer within the United States continued to grow during the 1990s. This growth has been attributed in significant part to the FIFA World Cup being held in the United States for the first time in 1994. This won the sport more attention from both the media and casual sports fans. The tournament was successful, drawing an average attendance of 68,991, a World Cup record that still stands today. The 1994 World Cup drew record TV audiences in the U.S.
As part of the United States' bid to host the 1994 World Cup, U.S. Soccer pledged to create a professional outdoor league. Major League Soccer launched 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 reached the quarterfinals, its best result in the modern era. The team qualified for seven consecutive World Cup tournaments between 1990 and 2014 before failing to qualify for the 2018 tournament, the first since 1986. The USMNT would return at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where they managed to repeat their performances of 2010 and 2014 editions.
The growth of the women's game during the 1990s helped increase overall interest in soccer in the United States. The number of women's college soccer teams increased from 318 in 1991 to 959 in 2009. Both the 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups were held in the United States. The crowd of over 90,000 at the Rose Bowl for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Final remained the largest crowd in the world to witness any women's sporting event for more than 20 years.