Usa Soccer

After devising the rules of this newly developed game, the English took it to the New World, as USA was popularly known at that time. Americans accepted the game with both hands. Thus the game developed along with another fast growing sport, baseball. The football federation in USA is as old as that of the baseball league.

Initially they Americans did not have any professional league. The soccer association started in 1884, and it was termed as a semi professional association. In the early days it held competitions in the areas which included the New England and the Midwest areas.

Though it began at an early stage, the game of soccer might not make its due place in the American society. The reason behind it was the mediocre performances from the American soccer players in the 20th century. Thus due to the availability of many other sports like American Football, Ice hockey, baseball, basketball etc. the American youth shook away from this sport. However, USA soccer found some good performances in the last two decades of the 20th century, both in men’s as well as USA’s women’s soccer. The game produced some good names which helped in the popularity of the game.

The USA national team has gained some popularity in the recent years. There team performed reasonably better in the 2006 world cup then the previous ones. In 2007 they won their fourth CONCACAF title in the Gold Cup tournament in their own country. The feast attracted a lot of crowd. The US women’ soccer team is however far more popular in the country than the men’s one. The reason is their more consistent performance and winning some major events in the game. The women soccer has also produced some very famous players like Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, and Julie Foudy etc. these players are also a part of FIFA Hall of Fame. The W-League, United Soccer Leagues and WPSL are the three leagues for women which are running successfully in USA. The women national team won their fist ever Women World Cup in 1991. They lifted their second cup in 1999 and won a gold medal in Olympics of 2004.

The youth soccer in USA was first envisioned in 1974. Karl Gorsch, Don Greer, Robert Nessler were the three men who get the credit of introducing the soccer league among the youth in USA. They penned down all the rules and regulations in three days, thus the earlier foundations of the youth soccer in USA were laid down by these gentlemen. This brought quite a revolution for the promotion of the game.

The earlier foundations of the club soccer in USA were laid by the school and college teams. It was mainly played by the children of the upper class, not because it was expensive, but because it became a class symbol at the time. The Oneida soccer club was first formed in Boston in 1862. The club introduced first ever USA soccer team roster, as opposed to the unscheduled games, commonly played in those days. The club included a group of Boston secondary school students, from the elite class. Thus it laid the foundations for the USA’s club soccer which is played in USA at the moment. Although soccer had not always been as popular in US as in Europe or South America, but still there is a lot of space available for the sport over there. If the soccer team would start to perform better in coming days with grabbing a few important tournaments the people may find more time to watch it giving a boost to the game.