I am an international student who has a keen passion for the game of football. Not the brown one, but the black and white one. Historically, this sport is one of the most popular sport across the world because of many reasons like:
- Very cheap accessories
- Simple rules of the sport
- A combination of speed and skills
Recent statistics indicate that less than a million kids in schools play soccer whereas nearly 4 million kids play American football. So, I believe there is an ample opportunity to make efforts to popularize this sport in this part of the world. Through this blog on soccer I will try to contribute my 2 cents towards that.
This sport is probably one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented sports that I have ever seen. People in America identify it as soccer. But everywhere outside the American soil, it is called football. The history of the way the name of football and soccer were formed is interesting and helps to understand how the game has changed over the years.
The game started off as early as the Han Dynasty in China. They started the sport of Tsu’ Chu and it consisted of kicking a leather ball filled with feathers and hair through an opening, measuring only 30-40cm in width, into a small net fixed onto long bamboo canes. Another form of the game, also originating from the Far East, was the Japanese Kemari, which began some 500-600 years later and is still played today. This is a sport lacking the competitive element of Tsu’ Chu with no struggle for possession involved.
The word soccer was first invented in England to distinguish between rugby football and association football. In order to avoid confusion, students referred to association football “assoccer” while they called rugby football “rugger.” They later on omitted the letter “a” in “assoccer” to make it sound fancier. Soccer eventually outgrew the popularity of rugby football by far. The distinction between rugger and soccer was no longer necessary. People already knew which sport was meant when someone says “football.” Hence, the word football stuck in English usage. Americans, however, have their popular sport of gridiron or American football, which goes by the plain name of football. And so they have had to use the word soccer to avoid confusion.
Soccer in the USA had started off in the late 1950’s with the NCAA sanctioning an annual men’s soccer championship. Two major national leagues were started in 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League, which merged to form the North American Soccer League. It enjoyed its largest popularity boost when Pele, the most renowned player of the last century, signed contract with the New York Cosmos club. They drew crowds of around 60000 very frequently, thus pushing its popularity throughout the country. Women’s soccer started off soon. By 1984, the Summer Olympics drew crowds of over 75000 for soccer in the Rose Bowl. This resulted in FIFA awarding the 1994 World Cup to USA. By this time, legends such as Alexi Lalas were pushing USA to the forefront of world soccer. Over the 20th century, players such as Landon Donovan, Heath Pierce and Jermaine Jones have made USA soccer extremely popular over the years. Also women’s soccer has taken a huge front seat in terms of attention as the women’s team are world champions right now.
Soccer is slowly taking over the country as a dominant sport with the MLS a shining example of the system. Recent performances at World Cups and international tournaments have shown that the USA team is ready to put up good fights at the international stage. I think the talents of Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund) and Julian Green (FC Bayern) show that the country has a bright future. But there are still a few things that I think are needed for American soccer to succeed at the world stage. The first is the national league. The MLS has been kick started from the days of Pele by the likes of Beckham and Thierry Henry. But it doesn’t have teams that have good quality players who are not beyond their playing days. The lack of talent has stemmed from two problems mainly. First is the lack of attention and passion to the league. Here at Penn State, there is hardly a talk of the MLS and not a lot of Americans watch soccer or even play soccer. The lack of popularity is hurting the sport as the talent can only come from the school level with the increase in popularity of the sport.
I will be bringing up the topic of World Soccer from next blog onwards, starting off with the biggest clubs in history and highlighting certain teams that made waves in the world. I look forward to seeing in the comments your views regarding soccer and if you have a favorite team or player. I would also like to hear whether I should call the game soccer or football. I also look forward to ideas for future blogs from you. See you next week!