Thursday, January 19, 2012

Soccer Heritage In The US

By Alex Blaken


Even though soccer is not the sport in the US, the history of soccer in the US is among the longest around, right alongside that of the English or even the Scottish.

After the English set out to form some rules for the game of soccer, these were soon taken to the brand new World, where Americans learned to like this rising sport, right next to another game that grew strong roots in the US in those days: baseball. Actually, the American Football Association may be the second oldest sports league in the USA, following the Mlb one.

Obviously, the history of soccer in US didn't start with an expert 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 plus some Midwest areas also it would be a rather chaotic environment to experience soccer in, but nevertheless it was 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 to the US Football Association, the first fully professional soccer organization through 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 therefore, the United States team participated in the early World Cups, although the game was starting to become outshined by baseball or basketball.

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

Just in case you considered, who invented soccer? The English of course!

A lot of will wonder, if 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 that the rather modest performances in the men's national side early on within the 20th century, combined with the high rise of baseball, basketball, football and hockey, resulted in the country soon lost curiosity about soccer and since American kids had so many alternatives, soccer slowly went out of fashion.

However, with the increasingly good performances from the US men's soccer team and the huge success from the women's soccer team (who were able to generate the very first trophies within the history of soccer in US and it is still among the world powers in the game 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 people soccer.




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