There's a great scene from The Big Bang Theory in which Sheldon tries to explain American-rules football to Leonard, and Wolowitz asks him, "How did you learn so much about football?" Sheldon explains that growing up in Texas, you cannot help but learn about football-- you're surrounded by NFL, college, HS, pee wee football, which makes it like a religion (or at any rate it would have done, in the 1990's), "...but curiously, they seem to think 'Original Football' is some sorta Commie plot..."

"English Zealand is not real, it can't hurt you"

We have the exact same thing here in Australia. Instead of football and basketball, we have to compete with Cricket, Australian Rules Football, Rugby League and Rugby Union.

growing up loving soccer in America wasn't always easy. I would get bullied a lot and never really understood why people would hate a sport that was so fun to me. It was really refreshing to go to college and finally find a community that appreciated footy

It’s amazing how similar the story is to us over here in Australia. Very much the sport played my migrants and too soft compared to AFL and Rugby league. When the Matilda’s had their run to the semi final last year it was amazing to see how many people were invested in soccer/football. It’s slowly coming along

I also think the "Soccer War", the 1928-29 internal war between the US Football Association (later the US Soccer Federation) and the American Soccer League, had an interesting impact of the development of football in the United States. Essentially, it removed the most popular football club in the United States from the United States' top league due to the ASL wanting to be more "franchise" like. That club being Bethlehem Steel, not to be confused with the modern version of the club now called Philadelphia Union II, ugh (While MLS Next Pro is beneficial for developing players, I really loathe MLS' hatred of the history of this sport in this country). And when I say "popular", they weren't on par with baseball but they were certainly no slouches either. Bethlehem Steel match results were printed in Philadelphia newspapers and Bethlehem Steel would also travel outside the United States like their tour of Scandinavia in 1919. International friendlies would occur in the U.S. prior to the Soccer War. For example, some friendlies included the likes of Rangers and Celtic. Real Madrid played one of their first matches outside of Europe in the U.S. on September 25, 1927 (although fun fact, they needed players from Athletic Club and Osasuna to fill out the Real Madrid squad for that match). Sparta Praha would play a series of friendlies in the US in 1926. Hakoah Vienna, who played a match at the Polo Grounds in New York that set the U.S. attendance record for football that would last until Pele. The Corinthian, a London club that would actually be the namesake of Brazil's famous Corinthians, played a massive set of friendlies in the US. The decision essentially caused multiple teams to leave the league either due to disagreement or concern about regulations. This destabilized pretty much every club around this conflict regardless of decision, and *all* of that right before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. While it is unclear if semi-pro/pro football clubs in the U.S. could have survived the Great Depression, the "Soccer War" certainly helped to kill clubs like Bethlehem Steel, the New York Soccer Giants, Fall River F.C and Pawtucket Rangers in a more rapid pace. Also, off topic, but the successor American Soccer Leagues (yes, plural) are an interesting story too. The United States has a bizarre history in this sport. Essentially to sum everything up since this post is kinda long: The Soccer War basically took the U.S.'s small grassroots infrastructure and destroyed it basically in the span of a year.

I recall being excited for the 94' world cup back when I was stationed in Hawaii and talking to my fellow Marines about it. They looked at me like I was a traitor. They statements like "If we cared about it, we would pull athletes from the real sports leagues and just win the whole thing, you know if we cared about it". It seems like the American attitude is "If I can't compete at the highest level, I'll simply berate it and say it's beneath me". I'm so happy to see that mindset die out. Long live football. World football.

Only thing he missed is that HS sports in rural areas replaces the local club sports structure. And the colleges become the highest sporting level reachable in the early 20th century.

What's not mentioned here is that soccer has always been a sport children played in the US. When I was a kid everyone's first organized sport was soccer. You usually started playing at 5 or 6 years old and most kids played for a few years before quitting and moving on to more popular sports that they would go on the play in high school and maybe college like football, basketball, and baseball. Because of this, it was very heavily associated with children. I think the stigma against it where I lived was basically, "soccer is a game for small children, grow up and play a real sport." Also, there basically was no high level soccer to be watched anywhere at the time. I very well may have stuck with it if I could watch the best players in the world on TV every weekend like I could with any other sport. I literally did not know what a good soccer player looked like until I was in like high school and ESPN started carrying some PL and Champions League matches.

Knowing Dana White hates football makes me love football even more.

I'm just imagining that tweet in the thumbnail being real.

It's worth noting that a lot of American sports media influencers are old. All of the top names are Sports journalists and ex-atheletes in their 50's-70's with backgrounds in the traditional American sports: MLB, NFL, NBA, and the college specific version of those three sports. They grew up in that generation that was actively taught to hate soccer. There is a big lack of soccer specific mainstream media voices in ESPN, Fox Sports, and other traditional American sports outlets. That colors the perception of soccer and MLS in America a lot. No one outside the soccer bubble covers soccer.

Paul Caliguiri played for my club SV Meppen and I've never heard the story^^ He was also chosen as one of 72 greatest personalities in the club's history in 2012

As an American, this video helped me understand a lot of hate for soccer here. As a woman, it also makes me a bit emotional and proud to know that women’s soccer kind of led the way.

He publishes this on THE SAME DAY we beat Mexico for the 3rd straight time in the Nations League. We aren't England, France or Holland but we're on the up!

Ok, this is probably up there as one of your best videos. I've been playing, watching, and following soccer my entire life and I learned some new things. The history and development of the US game versus foreign leagues and clubs was particularly good. And I did catch you shamelessly plugging in some UVA shots. Go Hokies!

Thank you for this video, Zealand. As a Gen Zer growing up in the American Football culture of Texas, I too often heard what you spoke about, in that all my nonsoccer-loving friends (which was about 95%) viewed soccer as a sport for primadonnas and women. In fact, my friends who did enjoy soccer were mostly all women. Soccer was so ostracized by the high school football culture in Texas, that it actually discouraged me from ever playing any organized soccer myself at any level. Too many times did I hear the exact verbiage you mentioned growing up from my American football and baseball coaches, "Get up! Be tough! No crying! This isn't soccer!" Even the 2014 WC (in which I personally watched almost every match) was not enough to garner the attention of my peers. But now, with the rise of American youngsters in Europe, the Pulisic-Mckenie era, and the 2022 WC campaign, I can see that soccer is finally breaking through with my countrymen. And man is it beautiful to see.....

You are my favorite UKpostsr and I love all of your content. Love from Tampa Bay. Also you played for Tampa Bay FC, one of friends plays for them now!

Can we just take a second to admire how well researched and well written this essay was?

Brilliant Video Zealand & fascinating to see how game has developed in US

Fantastic content Zealand!

One aspect that’s definitely overlooked is HS Soccer. It’s not taken as serious as other HS sports from Pro Scouts but if you really look you can find a lot of good players. It’s crazy to me because a lot of the best players that can’t play club due to costs are playing HS. That’s the most local team most in the country will play for and schools do have Freshman/JV/Varsity teams.

thank you for another amazing video, love this content. PLEASE keep doing more

Great work on this video -- It's very well researched, you actually pick at the historical 'why' behind the subject. A lot of people on this platform wouldn't do that. It fascinates me how quickly the sports hegemony became crystalized in the early 20th century.

Excellent summary, though I am surprised you did not touch on the USL, which helps promote soccer on a broader level.

I looked into this a lot while doing an alternate history timeline. There were various leagues attempted over the years, it would have been very possible for any of them to have continued and steadily grown the sport in the USA.

Great video! Your explaining is plain objective and well articulated, very nice watch Z!

Im just getting into the sport at 22 years old personally. I started playing fifa and learning about the sport and really enjoy it. Baseball is still my favorite sport, but I’ve been enjoying watching MLS games. I live right near the NE revolution and the new Rhode Island FC so I’m probably going to go to some games as well.

Super interesting insight into football in America. And interesting hearing it from an American. Loving these essay style football Z!

Great video. Being from Canada, I think a lot of what you said here applies similarly to football culture in Canada (or lack thereof.)

I have to say, this is a brilliant video. Thank you. Good English accent at the beginning as well!

So basically, American football fans look at soccer the same way rugby fans look at American football.😂

Fun fact: the 1950 American World Cup team had five players from the same city and four players from the same neighborhood in St. Louis. St. Louis, while always being a baseball first city has a rich history in soccer culture in America. There were semi-professional leagues that are believed to have started in the 1890s and 11 teams from St. Louis have won the U.S. Open cup. There’s also the rivalry between St. Louis University and Southern, Illinois University, Edwardsville. The rivalry began in the 60s when SIUE came into existence, the team started playing each other in one game competition for the bronze boot, which is a trophy. Both of the universities have had success at the national level St. Louis University, 10 national championships in the 60s and 70s while SIUE won two national championships one was in division two and one in division one. The rivalry was at its peak in the 80s and still the record for the highest attended college soccer game was the 1982 edition of this rivalry when 22,000 people came to Bush stadium to watch the teams play. The rivalry took a hiatus from the 90s to 2018 when SIUE moved to division two. However when SIUE returned to division one the rivalry began back up and is now in the St. Louis MLS stadium, this past year 8000 people came to the rivalry game and I’m hoping more come in the future , SIUE also won the bronze boot for the first time since 1982. St. Louis also had one of the best supported major indoor soccer league teams the St. Louis steamers, which, during its peak, saw higher average attendances than the St. Louis Blues our hockey team. St. Louis is an underrated soccer city. Edit: hahaha I used text to speech to type this out and realized just now that there were a few errors…SLU did not win 110 national championships as I accidentally put.

Canada also isn’t a great football country, but I’m English and just moved to Canada and I was surprised when most people said they preferred football in a survey I did for a math project 😂

This is the kind of video I can show to my old man to show young people on the Internet can be very informative. Great work, team Zealand. (I'm old too, I'll have to play it to my dad on half speed)....

Well done! Excellent piece of work!

I was one of those rare kids that grew up playing soccer, in part thanks to growing up in the shadow of an Air Force base where kids who had spent time at bases in England, Germany, and Italy would be rotated back and enjoyed playing soccer much more than American Football. I played until the costs of traveling for teams got too much, but the love of the sport and how it helped me in other sports will not be forgotten.

Ah, Alexi Lalas. My father was a huge fan, when he played in Serie A. He was not super good, but he was down to earth, appeared on italian satirical tv programs where he also played the guitar.

Really interesting insight, cheers Z

Excellent research as usual 🙂👍

Great video as always. I think something that wasnt mentioned that is helping the sport grow is 2 other things. 1. The amount of elite clubs coming over for friendlies is growing. I hope that changes to a weekend of actual league matches or a super cup. Like in FM24 I just played an italien super cup at the big house in january. Now that isnt realistic as its the big house in january. But itd be amazing to see the spanish or italian super cup played over here. Spain just played theirs in Saudi Arabia so maybe one day. 2. Just the ease of watching leagues. I can watch england, dutch, spanish, german and italien soccer on TV. My latino friends watch mexican league soccer. Its super easy to watch whatever league youre in to.

Who’s here after the nations league final. Dos a cero baby!!

Love to hear this insight.

This is the best explanation I've seen about the history of the sport in the US. Kudos

Another thing hampering growth here in the States is pay to play. I live in a mostly middle to upper class area and even those kids can't afford the eye-popping fees to play soccer here which makes you wonder how aspiring players who aren't so well off can even touch the field in this system

I'm from India, imagine what I'm going through 🥲

I love these videos, it's like getting a literal history lesson in the beautiful game.

Amazing insight. Awesome work, Zealand 😎👍🇺🇸⚽🦅

We're not bad at football. We're pretty good at it. We're undefeated football world champions... We just aren't very good at soccer.

Immigration is why baseball became popular. Baseball became a way to integrate into American society, it was a way for people to interact with their neighbors who came from other countries. They had no prior ties to the Yankees or Red Sox, like they had with soccer teams.

Great video! Appreciate the history lesson.

love the kit, I just moved to the area and I frequent that cafe for work.

And the way that people knew Pelé was because of ABC's Wide World of Sports, who showed the final of the World Cup live on ABC. With Pelé and Brazil being in a bunch of those finals, people knew of Pelé, which is why he was such a significant signing

i mean, to be fair, as a 9 year watcher of the NFL, Soccer players faking injuries for penalties is jarring when we watch NFL players shrug off hits that looks like it should've given them concussion. When soccer players act like nothing happened if they didn't get any penalties, they just look soft AND goofy.

Great content and explained so well. Have you done a video about how you fell in love with football from your own perspective?

This was so good! Not gonna lie you got me amped for the World Cup 😂

It seems Anglophone nations or those influenced from it are not destined for football unless they invested for it. Canada, Australia, NZ, Kenya, India, Japan, Dominican Republic (brief American rule), Tanzania, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc, all are similar.

We're too diluted as a nation to make USA soccer a powerhouse. This creates this unfortunate decision for most young people as they take the next step in school sports (high school then college). As a former dual sport athlete, having to decide between soccer & lacrosse scholarships was hard enough and that's two different sports played in different seasons (fall & spring). Being that soccer shares the same season as football, you have too many exceptional athletes choosing football as their path early on knowing this ultimatum always arrives. Its the same reason why I had to quit baseball even though I loved it (just because I loved lacrosse more). In many cases, football is just a more popular & attractive option (as its considered more "masculine" as a physical sport, has a larger roster that accomodates any body build/type, and oh .... cheerleaders decorate your locker before every game day). Its even those little factors that legimitately get some people to say I'd rather be a kicker/punter than a backup goalkeeper.

Outstanding video....even better background music.

What we need is this video + some cool US database for FM 24, so we can watch video and then play FM right away with some amazing MLS save or something

i've recently became a fan of the the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USL due to the ex Hearts manager being the new coach

Ahh Casey Keller, nice to hear his name :D Was the goalie at Mönchenglabach (the club is support in Germany) for a while.

To make your point even better, the one area where we have a similar culture and similar passion, college football. It maps onto European football culture so well.

Im both a fan of football and football and the disrespect given by americans to soccer/football sucks but the disrespect from Europeans to american football is even worse they dont even try to understand it and think its just a violent game when there is beauty in both sports

We no longer suck at football and are clearly the best team in CONCACAF, which yes does suck. We still got a long ways to go to catch Spain, Brazil, Argentina, France, etc, but we are closing the gap fast. The fact we are 13th in the world is pretty good considering 85% of Americans really don't care much. MLS has made a huge impact as has the USL. I would love to see college soccer in the US Open Cup and would love to see an open system. Maybe one day.

Absolutely brilliant man. This could be a whole semester long sociology course at college.

Nice shout out to Bert Patenaude from my hometown of Fall River, Mass. First ever World Cup hat trick.

Soccer may not be HUGE in the US but it is still very popular

What a wrong timing, USA just won the CONCACAF Nations League by beating Mexico 2-0 in the final

The reason Detroit City is my favorite club and team to watch of any professional sport is because it is community grown like the soccer clubs of England. We started in the lower leagues and while there's no pro/rel system, we moved up slowly to the USL-C where we play today.

best summary of us soccer history I've ever seen 👍

I grew up playing american football, where soccer is CONSTANTLY derided within the culture. Soccer has been my favorite sport for a long time now, but I was raised all thru high school to despise it. I think it’s an insecurity thing, bc in my experience American football culture is often characterized by insecure machismo, but we were literally taught to refer to our school’s soccer players with homophobic terms. Both my coaches and teammates alike constantly talked shit about the soccer team practicing on the field next to us, often using disgusting terms like “grass f***s.” The moment you realize that much of the American hatred for soccer comes from the projection of insecurity, it makes complete sense. Honestly sad I didn’t open my eyes to the beautiful game sooner, I know in my school’s case the soccer team had a more positive culture and actually won most of its games, whereas our football team was toxic, bitter, and almost always lost lol.

Paul Caligiuri Hansa Rostock legend!

Fantastic vid Zealand!

Probably the history of franchise-based football around the World would be interesting topic to make a video. MLS is well documented, but the history of the A-League and the Indian Super League are basically scattered everywhere, and along with that it could be brought the current situation of these leagues.

I’m American and I realized long ago that American’s do not seem to care for team sports that were not invented on this continent.

This is a fascinating story about US football and I’m glad my dad’s best friend, Jeff, is part of it. Jeff is my dad’s best friend, lived on the next street in Southampton and was his best man at my parent’s wedding. Jeff moved to the US in the 90s and he worked futsal and woman’s football in St Louis and Kansas City- really big cities full of futsal and female football heritage. He was called by USSF as ‘One of the best grassroots founders beyond the Mississippi River’. In 1999, he was part of the coaching staff for US female football team’s World Cup campaign, that was are inaugural World Cup; and he would work for FC Kansas City being part of the coaching team to win both NWSL Championship 2014 and 2015 before they dissolved in 2017 and become Kansas City Current. Now he works with futsal groups across the United States, Mexico and Canada - Helping develop the sport while also using the sport to help create a community centre for all people: male or female, old or young, new migrants or American people. He also works with KCFutsal and works with Sporting Kansas. So please US football fans respect the grassroots of Female football and futsal which massively helped your football history and continues to develop the game

I really liked this video. You should make it a series. Making a football development history video about Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy and England and how they're still superpowers to this day. Even though they have their ups and downs like Brazil current dark age, Germany's and Italy's recent flops, Argentina's 28 year title drought and England's, well being England.

Hockey also has a farmer league system, where an NHL team has affiliated teams in the AHL and the ECHL where the players are under contract with the NHL team.

Baseball and its initial structure is pretty damn similar to Euro football. Btw it’s not just the minor leagues a lot of these MLB teams have created youth academy’s just not many in the US. Vast majority of them being in Latin America/Carribean islands.

Sucks is reserved for like Mozambique or China. Us is actually pretty decent at soccer. Not a world power of course but hardly a doormat. I would say they are okay with chance to be very good

I think the one thing you might overestimate a bit is the role of academies in the development of Soccer in the rest of the world, because those academies are a relatively recent thing. For example the Pro clubs in Germany weren't expected to have a Youth academy up until when DFB started program for the promotion of talents in 2002/3. I think what the real difference is is the club culture we developed that has (as far as I know) no equivalent in the U.S. Basically every tiny village around here has it's own soccer club (according to DFB data that equals 24.000 clubs and is playing in the German league system with the possibility of promotion and demotion, so even really small clubs have the chance to go pro, if they have the necessary success (the latest success story being Elversberg that got promoted to 2. Bundesliga for this season, Elversberg being a small town of around 8000 inhabitants.) And even before academies became a thing, it was that league system that created international class players very reliably, so Germany had already won 3 world championships before those happened (basically as a consequence of our consequtive failures in the 1994 and 1998 wc quarter finals; *sigh* how times change; would love if we could make it to a quarter-final anytime soon^^). I still remember that when we lost the 92 european finals to Denmark, one way we got mocked about that loss was with pointing out that DFB had more members than Denmark had inhabitants at that time; btw. how Danish Dynamite got that title is one of the best stories in all of world soccer history, and if there's one title loss I can't really be sad about it's that one. Not saying the academies aren't a good thing (see WC 2014 as a direct result of that), but they weren't as crucial in the development of european and south-american football as high-schools and universities were for the U.S. counterparts. Oh and by the way, I always have fond memories of the likes of Paul Caligiuri (HSV), Tom Dooley (FC Homburg) and Eric Wynalda (FCS, though playing for that club made him our enemy at that time :D). And I really hope that my boy Reyna can stay healthy and return to make a difference at Dortmund. Really shows how far U.S. soccer has come when they didn't really have need of such a high-caliber talent at the 2022 WC.

Oh my god i always thought your voice sounds like it should have a british accent and i was so off guard when you dropped it. Keep in mind I have watched quite a few of your videos now

Title: Why the US sucks at football. Canada: Knock, knock. We are even worse than you Americans.

USA went on to win another nations league title on a rival. With that same score line. #DOSACERO

I have played soccer since I was 5 years old. I received a scholarship to play at a US college (I am Canadian). I believe the principle knock on soccer in North America is the “flopping.” We grow up with hockey and football where you get stitched up in the tunnel to the dressing room and get back to the bench without missing a shift… and then you play against a guy who falls down if you breathe too hard on him. There is a cultural chasm that might be impossible to overcome.

I'm not in the photo of The Wall from Orlando City's first MLS match, but I was there (to the right of the camera in front of the Heineken banner) 😁

Young US athletes just have so many more choices than other countries. Between baseball, basketball, NFL-style football, ice hockey, etc., our best athletes generally don't often play soccer. But I think it is significant that the internet became widespread not long after the formation of MLS. If you had an interest in soccer and weren't satisfied with the (lack of) coverage of the sport in local and national media, you could go find the info you wanted on your computer.

I'm doing my to do list while listening!

Very nice video Zealand

Women's game has been actually decent for a long time. The current women's team may have fallen off a little bit, but they have some nice players.

It almost feels like a lot of Americans wilfully ignore or even rail against the rampant success of their womens' football team? At least from what I've seen online? And let's not get into the disgraceful squealing and screeching around the last WC when they got knocked out in the quarters- for all the American patriotic fundamentalism I've seen, to see some gleefully celebrate their team losing because of crap they themselves politicised was... really disgusting??

It would be interesting to make a comparison with the development of football in Japan. I think they started almost at same time during the 90's, but now they're some steps ahead

I’m 43, American playing soccer since I was a kid (should’ve played in college cause was all area goalie but was so scared of failing to run 12 min 2 miles or some run test). I played full games as freshman as left fullback, best shape ever but my body was never good at continuing long distance running. That quick break helped. I’m from western Pa, heart of American football. Love soccer, football, baseball, basketball and hockey. Played all of them. Soccer, baseball and basketball the longest. I understand sports, respect these games and others because I get what’s going on. The deeper inside of what’s happening. I could play any position in soccer. Knowing the field, flow, where to play the ball, guide my teammates. My uncle was HS coach and needed a goalie, put me there. It’s gotten bigger because more immigrants coming. Plus people understanding the game better. That’s the key to any sport. One reason NBA I lost interest in and nfl new rules pushing me away each year. I went to 94 WC and plan on going to 26 WC. USA I believe will have its best team ever there. I don’t think we will win but never know, 80 hockey team did.

It isn't just the "macho" aspect that turns off many Americans. Soccer is also seen as a very left wing space in the US. From the players (Women's National Team especially) to fans waving pride/BLM flags and being almost exclusively liberal. Its also seen as very middle/upper middle class as well. The players all come from wealthy families and when I think of all the soccer fans in the US, the image of a white, middle class liberal comes to mind. Conservatives follow American Football and Hockey while liberals watch soccer (baseball and basketball being kinda in the middle). Typically, people who are left leaning in the US aren't as big sports fans as conservatives, but I feel like soccer in America is "their sport" so to speak.

Not Surprising that China and USA attitude toward football club is just as a money making machine , Two of them forget about the importance of junior athlete talent scouting and the grass field training　because the success of football team is not something instant and even Japan and Korea football team take a junior athlete talent scouting across the nation and grass root field training instead a concrete building seriously Also in China , its quite challenging to do talent scouting properly since kids in China are demanded to pursue academical achievement more seriously Speaking about a successful sports club , You can't make a successful sports club , if there is a corruption inside , Although there are tons of successful sports club in China , Only the football club are fail cause there are corruption inside the football club ecosystem

In North Carolina, NC FC has maybe the only youth to pro system that has produced talent for the senior team and even went on to MLS and beyond

I feel you with those views on football..I am Finnish guy since we don't have that long summer we are not used to play football long season and we don't have infrastructure as other nordic countries have. We compare it to ice hockey which is physical game and we are good at because of our long winter. Sadly many people just see those same bad sides of it. but gladly we are also upgrading our infrastructure and maybe someday getting better at it too! @zealand

We're not bad though. We're actually pretty decent. Stop perpetuating this idea and recognize how far we've come in 30 years and the potential we have.

How you gonna upload such a clickbait caption on the day USA wins the third Nations league in a row lol