GUEST COLUMN: Why New York City can claim to be the center of U.S. soccer

Overview:

Pedants will, perhaps justifiably, challenge the suggestion of New York City being the center of U.S. soccer when one of its biggest teams doesn’t even play there – or even in the state.

Is this the real home of US soccer? (Photo courtesy of Unsplash)

By Zach Lowy

Special to FrontRowSoccer.com

Pedants will, perhaps justifiably, challenge the suggestion of New York City being the center of U.S. soccer when one of its biggest teams doesn’t even play there – or even in the state. But the New York Red Bulls aside, there is still an argument to be made that the city that never sleeps is also one that has long been a starting place for the sport in this country.

With one Major League Soccer team relying on its metropolitan identity, and another sharing games between the Bronx and Queens, and sometimes Harrison, N.J. – while looking forward to opening a soccer-specific stadium soon – most people know that New York is one of the only cities in the US that boasts two top-tier soccer teams. But any fan will tell you that the city’s claim to be the center of the soccer universe goes far beyond that, and even beyond the many sportsbooks featured on VegasBetting.net.

Soccer has enjoyed, and endured, a long history in the United States, but New York City has always been there at the forefront, attempting to pull the nation along with the rest of the world and to embrace the sport as its own. There have been times when it has been less successful in that endeavor, but the aim has been there all the same.

We know that a version of what we now know as soccer was being played around the mid-17th century by the original New Yorkers, the Lenape, and soccer balls were being sold in shops in Lower Manhattan before many of the oldest clubs in England had even been formed. Annual Thanksgiving Day games had been staged near the site of the yet-to-be-built Empire State Building in the 1840s, and local clubs were even competing to lift silverware designed by Tiffany and Co. just 40 years later. With waves of immigration from England. Scotland, and Ireland, soccer had really taken off in the city during the second half of the 19th century, with teams and leagues springing up all over New York.

New York City has always been a major entrance point for immigrants from across the world, bringing their own distinct cultures and pastimes to add to the melting point of the U.S. Although we already know that soccer had been a fixture of the city for a long time before the first leagues were formed, those millions of newcomers also brought their love of soccer to these shores.

Most soccer historians point to 1921 as the year when modern soccer really came to New York City (and the rest of the U.S.), when the first fully professional league was formed in the luxurious confines of the Hotel Astor in Times Square. The American Soccer League was born, and those pedants pointing to the location of the Red Bulls stadium might like to note that this new competition consisted of four teams spread across the New York/New Jersey area. In a curious twist of fate, it was the emergence of this professional set-up that saw soccer’s influence and participation wane over the next few decades.

Legal limits on immigration from southern and eastern Europe in the mid-1920s saw a fall in the number of people who might have considered soccer to be their one true sport. This policy of isolationism from the US also helped soccer’s popularity fall, alongside a growing idea that soccer was a “foreign” sport. FIFA had not been too keen on the high wages paid in the ASL, being far happier with the amateur status that still ruled the roost in the United Kingdom. Soccer’s governing body threatened the U.S. Football Association with expulsion if it didn’t do something about this upstart league. That ultimately resulted in the ASL being outlawed. Soccer would live on in the city, but the crowds began to dwindle.

The USMNT continued to compete in international competitions, of course, famously beating England at the 1950 World Cup, with a goal scored by Joe Gaetjens. At the time, he played for NYC’s very own Brookhattan FC at the time. But baseball had become New York’s favorite sport by then, thanks to the dip in soccer’s status, with the sport’s next peak not arriving until Pele joined the New York Cosmos in 1975. The Brazilian is still regarded by many as the best player the sport has ever seen (even accounting for the legions of Lionel Messi fans), and the North American Soccer League Pele signed up for was a razzmatazz league that leaned heavily on aspects of American sports culture that were very different from those enjoyed elsewhere in the world. The soccer may have looked a little different, but there is no denying that Pele, and the many other top world talents that followed him in signing for NASL teams, turned New York City into the center of U.S. soccer once again.

As with many leagues across a variety of sports, the NASL disbanded, and later incarnations of the Cosmos have been forced to launch and relaunch in the decades since. But the arrival of Major League Soccer, with the then New York/New Jersey MetroStars as one of the original teams, brought professional soccer back to New York City, this time involving more people across the country.

Since then, we have seen the emergence of a second MLS team in the city, attracting top European athletes in the same way that the Cosmos did all those years ago.

But the reason why New York City can claim to be the center of U.S. soccer is not the MLS teams it can boast. It is the other professional teams, in other leagues, that have followed in their wake. Gotham FC and Brooklyn FC now use the city as an iconic backdrop, and there are countless other semi-professional and amateur teams playing games across the five boroughs. The region’s competitions, such as the Cosmopolitan Soccer League, play at an incredibly high standard, and even the pick-up games being played in neighborhoods all across the city prove that soccer is alive and well.

Soccer may now be a truly American, nationwide game, with passionate fans from St. Louis to Seattle, and all places in between. But it is New York City that can claim to have always been at the center of soccer in the U.S.

Pick-up games in New York City are the heartbeat of the game – Source: Unsplash

But the reason why New York City can claim to be the center of U.S. soccer is not the MLS teams it can boast. It is the other professional teams, in other leagues, that have followed in their wake. Gotham FC and Brooklyn FC now use the city as an iconic backdrop, and there are countless other semi-professional and amateur teams playing games across the five boroughs. The region’s competitions, such as the Cosmopolitan Soccer League, play at an incredibly high standard, and even the pick-up games being played in neighborhoods all across the city prove that soccer is alive and well.

Soccer may now be a truly American, nationwide game, with passionate fans from St. Louis to Seattle, and all places in between. But it is New York City that can claim to have always been at the center of soccer in the U.S.

Zach Lowy can be followed on X at @ZachLowy.