INTRO
In the U.S soccer or football hasn't caught on quite just yet. Even though the American people have had recent success like in the 2002 World Cup and the 2009 Confederations Cup. Though extremely popular in European countries, soccer took a long time to gain momentum in the United States because Americans put more money and attention into other sports like baseball, football, and basketball. Soccer eventually became popular in the 1970s, but then lost popularity again when the National League went bankrupt.
U.S soccer started when the English settlers came to populate America. The game was originally played across an entire town with two nets at either end. Players tackled each other to get the ball to one end of the town and in a net. It was much like modern day rugby. The Native Americans were also playing a game similar to football. It was called pasuckquakkohowag. In the 1820s more and more colleges, such as Harvard and the University of Maryland, started having soccer teams. (confirm these facts)
Though soccer may have been the earliest organized sport in the British colonies and early United States, it soon had to compete with baseball, football, and basketball. The first baseball game was on June 9th, 1846. People liked it because younger people could play. It was very popular among immigrants from England, Germany, and Ireland. In 1857 the National Association of Baseball Players was started. Then December 5th, 1856 a newspaper called baseball the “national pastime.” Then by the late 1800s American football, which combined rugby and Boston soccer, became increasingly popular. Three presidents played or coached football: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Basketball was not invented until t...
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...ball has a long and interesting history. For example, the Oneida Club of Boston was founded in 1862, making it the oldest outside England.” Encyclopedia of Soccer, page 71
Works Cited
Dower, John, and Mark Monroe. “Once in A Lifetime” (video). Accessed April 22, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBR8jN_SyE0. July 7, 2006
Lineker, Gary. Soccer The Definitive Illustrated Guide to World Soccer. London, Great Britain: Carlton Books Ltd, 1994
Litterer, David. The Year in American Soccer. Sover.Net, Web. Accessed 22 Apr. 2014. . 7 Mar. 2014
Kornheiser, Tony. “Americans Have Adopted Soccer, No Longer an ‘Immigrant’ Sport.” The New York Times. July 5, 1977.
Sellin, Eric. The Inner Game of Soccer. Mountain View, CA: World Publications 1977.
Sullivan, George. This Is Pro Soccer. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1979.
This sport was first played in China by military forces during the 2nd century. Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. Want to know why? Soccer is an easy sport to understand, it is a fun sport to play, and you meet a lot of friends through playing!
Since the sport first emerged, baseball and America have shared the same values, responded to the same events, and struggled with the same social and economic issues. To learn of the ideals concerning the sport of baseball in America, is to know the heart and mind of America. Baseball developed before the Civil War but did not achieve professional status until the 1870s (The Baseball Glove, 2004). In 1871, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was formed. Unfortunately, the organization ran into financial hardships and was abandoned in 1875.
Football can be traced by rugby and soccer. Walter Camp is the “Father of Football” (Bennett).The first American football game played in the 1860’s (Bennett). Football has a lot of history in the game. The rules are important to the game. The beginning of the National Football League is still going strong today. Strategies and formations of the game are important to study. Football is an aggressive sport and is one of the most played sports in the United States.
Soccer is played in over 200 countries over the world, making it the most popular sport. Over one billion fans watch the World Cup Soccer on television, which is played every four years. Soccer players run an average of six miles during every game. The United States and Canada are the only two countries that call it soccer. The first soccer games may have originated in China. The U.S has more official soccer players than any other nation in the world, almost 18 million. The first women’s soccer team, called the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA), made its first debut in 2001.
Franklin starts by giving reasons why he has used soccer to explain the failure of globalization and also clarifies that his objective is not to argue economic changes and factors, but to address cultural issues. In the first part of How Soccer Explains the American Culture Wars, the author goes into depth that how and why soccer entered into his life and what role his parents played to ensure that their child excelled in the sport. He then talks about the cultural divide in America; the different mindsets of the elite and the working middle class and how individuals from these classes reacted to the introduction of soccer in America in the 1980’s. Moving on, in the second part of his analysis, the author sheds light on the hateful comments of some eminent Americans such as Tom Wier, Jack Kemp, Allen Barra and most importantly Jim Rome. These individuals have openly expressed their hatred for soccer and they believe that it is “not a sport”. To counter claims and criticism made these men, Franklin presents some facts and figures that clearly state that over the years soccer has managed to make its way into the American culture, while the most American sport i.e. Baseball has lost viewership. This section is summed up by differentiating between the stances of two contrasting groups towards globalization. In the last part of the
Players added many rules that changed the game, and each school interpreted them differently. In 1848, a group of school representatives met at Trinity College in Cambridge and drew up the first set of soccer rules (Brooks Clark, 1993). In 1863, representatives of English soccer clubs founded the English football clubs found the English Football Association.
Soccer differs in Spain and in America when it comes to attendances and passion for the sport, play style, and the way their players are shaped into professions. The United States is said to play a hybrid form of soccer compared to hispanic countries (Parrish). American soccer athletes are typically taught to emphasize conditioning and possession. Secondly, Americans and Hispanics’ passion for the sport are extremely different from one another. The people in Hispanic countries live for soccer, as they are devoted, passionate, and loyal to the teams. Contrarily in America, football, basketball, and baseball trump soccer making it only the fourth most attended and watched event. No matter how the sport is played or how many people attend the events, soccer is well liked in both the United States and Hispanic
Gallo, DJ. "20 Amazing Soccer Facts Most American Sports Fans Don’t Know." SportsPickle RSS. SportsPickle, 14 Aug. 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Games similar to soccer were played in China as early as 400 BC. In about 200 AD the Romans played a game in which two teams tried to score by advancing a ball across a line on the field. The Romans passed the ball to one another but they never kicked it. London children in about 1100 played a form of soccer in the streets. During the 1800’s the people of England played a game similar to soccer. Many rules changed and each person interpreted the rules differently. In 1848 a group of school representatives met at Trinity College in Cambridge and drew up the first of soccer rules. In 1863 English soccer clubs founded the Football Association. By the late 1800’s soccer began to spread to the rest of the world. The Canadian Soccer Association was established in 1912 while the United States Soccer Federation was set up in 1913.
Schackelford, M. (Jul 4, 2009). The Importance of Sports in America. Retrieve for this paper Mar 20, 2014 from, http://bleacherreport.com/articles/211946-the-importance-of-sports-in-america
Kuper, Simon, and Stefan Szymanski. "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds." Soccernomics. New York: Nation, 2009. 47-48. Print.
Naison, Mark. "Why Sports History Is American History." The Glider Lehrman Institute of Amercan History, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
Riesman, David. Football in America: A Study in Culture Diffusion ... Philadelphia: Prentice Hall, 1951. Print. this book mainly focused on how the evolution of football affected the United States of America as a whole and also talked about how the sport came to be as it is today. I found it very helpful
The Web. Menke, Frank G. The Encyclopedia of Sports. South Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1987. Print.
Soccer has proven to be a notable sport throughout the years, starting with its unique history. Soccer began all over the world, tracing back thousands of years. The Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Ancient Greek, Persian, Vikings, as well as other nationalities all played a form of the game soccer. In China and Rome, games that were similar to soccer were played around 200 B.C. Helmer and Owens, 5. People believe that soccer started more than a thousand years ago when villagers killed attacking pirates by cutting off their heads and kicking them around (Helmer and Owens, 5).