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The begining of it all
In 1620, Pilgrim Fathers saw American Indians that were settled at Plymouth Rock playing a form of soccer. The American Indians so called it “Pasuckquakkohowog”, which means to gather to play football. -
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Empty soccer period
In this long period of time, the game of soccer didn't progess much at all and nothing was documented about U.S. soccer. -
Real but fake play
Nothing much happened with game game until 1820. In 1820, soccer was played in the colleges in the northeast. Even though the game was played at the universities or colleges, the rules were not set and so the game often changed. -
First club team
The first ever club soccer team was founded in Boston. The club team was called Oneidas and was formed by Gerritt Smith. -
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Oniedas stats
The club team, the Oneidas were undefeated in all their seasons from 1862-65. There is now a monument that stands in the Boston Common where the Oneidas used to play their home games. -
It becomes officialized
In this year, soccer became a regular, orginized college sport. The first officialized college match was played between Princeton and the Rutgers. The Rutgers did not only win 4-6, but won the first collegiate soccer match in U.S. history. -
Officialize the rules
The American Football Association from New Jersey made an official set of rules that soccer could follow as it grew as a sport in America. -
Going International
Canada and the United States played against each other in the first ever international soccer game to happen outside of Britian. This was a big deal because soccer was already a trend in Britian, unlike it was in the U.S. or Canada. -
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FIFA
The Federation of International Football Association, also known as FIFA wanted to get country's from all over the world to play soccer together. At first it was not a legal act because of certain country's not being connected with FIFA. Finally FIFA became an olympic sport in 2008 which was nice and eventually the US joined FIFA in it's olympic competions. -
The Men's Team Goes Abroad
In this year, the USFA (United States Football Association) let their first men's team travel to Norway and Sweden to compete in FIFA. They came out of the competition with their stats being 3-1-2 which is fairley good for going abroad. -
Indoor Soccer
The world's first ever indoor soccer complex was built in Boston. The feild was not only indoors, but it was a full-sided field playing 11 players from each side on the field. -
First FIFA Competition
The first ever FIFA competion was held in Montevideo, Uruguay. There was a total of 13 teams or nations that entered the games and the USA came out in 3rd place overall. -
Under the Lights
The first ever game to be played under floodlights (big, tall lights at soccer and football feilds) was fought by Salisbury College v.s. West Chester State College. -
The Coaches Collaborate
There was a total of 10 coaches that met annually to discuss collegiate soccer. This committee was named the NSCAA for being The National Soccer Coaches Association of America. -
Biggest Upset Ever
A man by the name of Joe Gaetjens' made the biggest upset ever in American history. It was a game played by the U.S.A. and England who was number 1 in the world at the time. It was the 39th minute into the game and Joe scored a goal with a diving header standing in the penital box. At the end of the game the US had left England with an unbelievable loss of 1-0. This game was a shocking win for the US and it definitally went down in American history. -
International Again
The American soccer league was granted permission to create an International soccer league (ISL). This team was made up of the best players from all the countrys in the world and they played in the major U.S. cities. -
The scoop on the International Team
For a while, people from around the world would come to play and observe soccer in America. Eventually, the International Soccer League got sponsered by the ASL and William Cox. The International team at the time consisted of players from South America, Britian and Europe. -
New Teams
There was a lot of complications between all the teams this year. the NPSL and the USSFA were sort of striving to get into FIFA. At the end of the years when they realized they couldn't, both the teams merged forming the NAPL and playing into FIFA World Cup. -
Signing Superstars
In 1975, the professional team, The New York Cosmos signed one of the greatest players of all times. They signed a guy by the name of Pele for just around 4.5 million dollars. At this time in his life, he was ranked the number 1 player in the world!! This was a steel for the New York Cosmos. -
20-Under National Team
In Austrailia, the World Youth Championship was occuring and the 20-under entered in it. We lost to Poland 4-0, lost to Uruguay 3-0, tied Qatar 1-1. -
Being Awarded
In Zurich Switzerland of this year, there was a FIFA meeting held. The FIFA faculty and congress decided that the U.S. was going to host the 1994 World Cup!! -
More Merging
Both the WSL and the ASL merged together to create a team called APSL. The reason for this was that the U.S. was going to compete in the World Cup for the first time in 40 years. -
Women's World Cup
In 1991, the first ever Women's World Cup was hosted in China. The U.S. Women's team took the championship medal by winning the final match against Norway, 2-1. At this, the team qualified for the regional championship and on to three more intense rounds until conquering a gold medal at the games in Cuba. -
1994 World Cup
This was the year, FIFA had decided the World Cup was going to be hosted in the United States. The games were played in 9 major cities of the U.S. The tournament started Friday, June 17th and lasted until Sunday, July 17th. It created lots of profit for the U.S. knowing that the attendence was up to 3.6 million people. -
The Women Take the Win
The National Women's team took the champion medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. They also won the Brazil Cup and finished the year with a record of 21-1-2. -
Unfortunite Losses
The Men's National team traveled to France to play in the World Cup. The team played a total of three games and only scored 1 goal in all those games. The team finished the dead, in last place. -
Player of the Year
Mia Hamm won the "player of the year'" award from FIFA in 2001. Winning this award, she beat out Tiffany Milbrett and Sun Wen. The first time she put on a United States soccer jersey, she was only 15. Now, she is still claimed the number 1 player of all times even though she retired. -
Outbreak
Originally, the 2003 World Cup was supposed to be hosted in China. Due to an outbreaking respitory syndrome, they had to move it to the U.S.. -
Women's Team Stats
The Women's National team finished out the season of 2005 without letting a goal be scored on them! This is quite incredible considering they played 928 minutes of soccer without letting 1 goal up! -
Landon Donovan
The Women's team lost to Nigera in a quarterfinal game while the men's team manage to put in a memorable, last minute goal by Landon Donovan. This goal put them in 3rd place at the 2010 FIFA. -
Women's World Cup
This was one of the most phenominal World Cup's ever. It was played between the United States and Japan. The final score was 5-2, but during the game Carli Lloyd took a risky shot from half field and manage to put it in over the goalies head. This was one victorious win for the U.S.. -
Conclusion
Throughout American history, soccer has grown as a sport and even as a culture for many. Soccer has a huge impact on our society as being a sport and a lifestyle. Soccer will continue to grow like it has since the very begining in 1620. Here's to soccer and many years to come.
