Why Isn't There a "Footballing Culture" in the U.S.A

All sports come with fandoms. They are the root of the business, the thing that drives the players to victory, the judge, jury, and executioner of all things the teams and players stand for. European football is particularly peculiar in this regard because of the nature of how passionate some people are about their football clubs. Without getting into too much detail, football fanbases have become a part of the matchday culture for a sport that has been ingrained in almost 200 years of history. Every footballing nation has a football culture, a deep underlying love for the sport, and a determined style of play they have adhered to for many years. Examples include the rough and physical football played in England, the flair and speed game in Spain, Total Football in Holland, the list goes on. These are countries that have players who play from the lowest divisions of the game in the hopes of getting all the way to the highest tier. They grow up around the play style and the culture of the sport with it. 

Not every nation has played football long enough to have this longstanding culture or passion for the sport, and the USA is a unique example in this regard. While the USMNT may struggle on the international stage, its women's team has endured profound success. It is not a scenario that should be seen throw a narrow scope, because, if you go back in the history of US sports development, soccer could've emerged as one of the nation's most popular sports, if not for some unfortunate events. Most of the information I got was used in this Vox video and this one done by Football Iconic explaining why the US Men's Team has struggled in recent years compared to the rest of the world, and why the cultural impact has taken longer to build. It is always a very big sticking point that a country with the size, resources, population, and sporting merit in other athletics should be able to field a quality men's soccer team. But if you've watched US men's soccer, success is few and far between, although the future looks much, much brighter. Go back in time as we explore what caused the end of American soccer culture before it had a real chance to develop. 

Before America had its own version of football, European football was quite popular in the North American continent. It was enjoyed much more by those in the academic realm, most popular amongst college students, in the late 19th century. Around the same time European football arrived in the USA, so too did rugby, one that made its way to Ivy League institutions. 19th-century America took to rugby and football quite well, but there were those who had other ideas to turn English sports into their own American-style sport. College football became a popular sport in America when Yale and Harvard had the first-ever American football game in 1875. However, this new American football was still not at the level that soccer, or even baseball at this time was. At the turn of the 20th century,  American soccer entered a very crucial and formative decade, but it was ultimately crushed by disputes about professional wages between the United States Football Association, USFA (US Soccer Federation today), and the American Soccer League, ASL. The two organizations never saw eye to eye on establishing a club system that was similar to the European pro-rel league style, nor among finances, team city locations, and more. Then the Great Depression hit, the USFA folded and merged with the ASL, then that eventually folded as well. Baseball would come out of the 1930s to dominate to become the sport of choice amongst those from all walks of life in the USA for deacdes. Football slowly followed suit in the 1950s as the NFL grew in popularity to what it is now - a sport that literally owns two days of the weekend - and the NBA would start to gather a steady following starting in the 50s and in the 60s and turn sensationally upward in the 80s and 90s; the NHL expanded and became a very niche but fun sport for American households in the 1960s and beyond. Soccer, though, was not that overly popular in America at this time. It was extremely niche, played mostly in prep school or colleges, but it never really had a stable pro league or massive fanbase during the golden years of postwar America, when baseball, football, and basketball dominated the specter. 

Many editorials suggest the American public was first really captivated by soccer during the 1966 World Cup, particularly the Brazilian National Team and the legend himself, Pele. His skill and access to television opened a new door for Americans. So in the years after Brazil's dominance in the 1960s at the World Cup, the first attempt at an American professional soccer league was created: the North American Soccer League. It was a lucrative business scheme that was based more on entertainment than actual football, but to say that was a bad business model would be incredulous to the NASL. Not only was it a high-flying and extravagant affair, the NASL even attracted some of football's biggest names: George Best from Manchester United, Johan Cruyff from Ajax and Barcelona, and the biggest of all, Pele. To them, the football was easy and it showed in the flair and utter ease at which they played. However, that still got people in stands to watch them. The NASL was short-lived, though, as it was successful but as the league expanded to 18 teams by 1977, financial problems were felt. Ultimately, players like Cruyff and Pele would leave and the league shut down in 1986 after money was bleeding from the organization. It's also worth noting how few American-born players were on NASL squads. So you could say the NASL was a start at creating a soccer fanbase in America, but it was never going to be something you and the lads would be discussing in the pub, arguing over who was the better player on the New York Cosmos over the player on the Los Angeles Aztecs. Not to mention, the NASL itself felt rather lackluster since it was run by NFL executives who really had no clue on how to run a legitimate soccer club. The NASL was by no means a total failure, though.

In the wake of the NASL falling apart, in came a new professional league, this one run by people who understood soccer, but wanted to run it in a more American way: Major League Soccer. In 1996, the inaugural MLS season began, with only 10 teams in the league. This was different from the NASL venture because MLS was focused on developing American players; in fact, it made a point by instituting things like a draft system to pick from the NCAA soccer ranks, with no promotion-relegation, an attribute that continues to this day. The MLS was not an overnight success, but it got TV air time on ESPN and ABC even in its early days. It wouldn't be until 2006 when the LA Galaxy made the successful signing of David Beckham and created the designated player rule, allowing one to three players to be paid a wage outside the salary cap. Many sports journalists had lauded this moment as the turning point for the MLS and soccer in the USA. Everyone knew David Beckham, he was a sensational football star, and say what you want about his time as a member of the Galaxy (going on loan to AC Milan twice, only honoring 4 years of his lucrative MLS contract, ending his career with PSG), without him, the MLS does not expand and it does not reach a larger American public. Couple that with USMNT standouts like Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Jermaine Jones, DeMarcus Beasley, and others, the foundations of the first American golden generation was coming into its own. Since 2006, the MLS has expanded to 32 teams, 3 based in Canada, with clubs in cities like Portland, Charlotte, Miami, Dallas, Austin, Minneapolis, two New York-based clubs, two in Los Angeles, Nashville, and so on. The MLS has built itself up into a massive sporting association, but it remains to be seen whether or not the MLS can capture a whole city and bring it to a standstill like a team like Boca Juniors in Argentina, Tigres in Mexico, Manchester United in England, and other massive clubs. There are promising signs ahead.

In the 2010s and now 2020s, American soccer culture is a turning point. The USA not only boasts a large collection of talent on the men's and women's side, but they have also started to become a dominant and well-known footballing team. The Women's team has endured the most success, winning 4 Women's World Cups and have a chokehold on most of FIFA's women's competition; the Men's team...well they have shown a lot of improvement, but in a very unfortunate statement, they are still nowhere near the levels of elite footballing nations. We don't expect the US men's team to win the World Cup, but qualifying for it should be a no-brainer. Since the USMNT failed to make it to the 2018 World Cup, it has been a steady four years of watching the US team mature, get in more talent, see many of the players make the jump to Europe, defeat rivals Mexico three times in a calendar year (2021), win the CONCACAF Nations League, the Gold Cup, and finished 3rd in World Cup Qualifying. That being said, the US has fallen short of Canada twice, which has also become a very notable footballing nation, one that has embraced footballing culture much quicker than the US. Still, there has never been a more talented generation of American players on both teams, and never this many playing for European clubs in top leagues. Growth has been seen, and interest in US Soccer has skyrocketed, but not every American sports fan has bought into the domestic soccer hype, just yet. 

Access to soccer broadcasts has never been easier with the Internet, and that has also created larger American followings of English, Spanish, Italian, German, and French clubs because of the high level these countries play at. The Premier League and Champions League are enjoyed thoroughly in the US, and that is a reason why the MLS has struggled to establish itself as the typical American soccer league of choice. Liga MX, the Mexican top flight, is the most-watched soccer league in the USA, given the large Mexican population in the country, especially in the Southwest. The MLS is not considered a top-tier league; former European stars have criticized it for being too easy, most notably Zlatan Ibrahimovic. But, David Villa, Andrea Pirlo, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Chicarito Hernandez, and others could note it's not as laidback as it seems. The MLS is highly competitive, there are 32 teams in play, the season is incredibly long, and with no promotion-relegation, the parity constantly changes. Still, MLS still can't beat out English football, Champions League, or Mexican football when it comes to broadcast viewers. Last season was the most-watched MLS final in the history of the league, with 1.4 million viewers. NYCFC, one of the biggest teams in the biggest markets, beat out a dynasty in the Portland Timbers. The cultural backing of soccer in the US is coming. People like the MLS, they love the USMNT more and the rise of such a wave of American talent jumping to play in Europe is only making them build up a solid backing. Eventually, they will have the debates on which player was better, Donovan or Dempsey, Pulisic or Weah? In time, that will be America's soccer culture.