This video is a remake of one I made a few years back. It was maybe the most fun I’ve had making a “retro” video, but the actual video turned out trash. So here’s a bigger and better one! Hope you enjoy.
As an American, I feel it comes down to 3 things. 1. USSF doesn't really care about growing the game and expanding it's reach and scouting new players. They haven't done enough to give people a chance to be seen 2. MLS is devil. USL and MLS are the 2 big ones. If they work together they would do so much good but all they care about is money and gatekeeping it to themselves. 3. Actual good youth teams are EXPENSIVE and travel heavy. I have seen this to, many teams in my area need massive amounts of money and travel. This makes it so there is less chance for people to have an actual chance to be seen by local teams and have more experience.
Everything you said is true, but #3 is why the sport isn't blowing up because the national team isn't blowing up BECAUSE OF PAY TO PLAY. In Europe teenagers are getting f'ing PAID TO PLAY. It's not hard to see why the kids there are excited to play and developing into stars. From DAY ONE when a European or South American kid shows special talent they are put into academies with ELITE COACHING (way better coaching than in the US) where they make a little bit of money (enough to make the time spent by their parents worth it) AND there are clear future financial incentives. Elite players at elite academies start making 6 figures as soon as they turn 17. That's how I know the academy system works at my club, Arsenal, and at the academies of the mega rich top half of the Premier League.
Dont blame USL. They're just trying to function and MLS actively tries to sabotage them and shoot them down. It's funny bc that should be up to USSF to make them work together but they don't bc MLS has a stranglehold on them. Also an open system would be great but we're not ready for it yet structurally. Eventually, but not yet
Naa I think you guys just have a lot going on compared to other countries, movie & show bis, music bis, NBA and many more more, you guys have a lot more other ways to entertain yourself and the rest of the world that it doesn't matter if football isn't a major sport for you guys. In a way you kinda lucky
@@Asshat237 The biggest problem here in the United States is just how large the country is. In order to play against other teams, you might have to travel some distance, which drives up costs.
Academy brats vs street kids. I grew up in Lebanon playing where ever we could- parking lots, streets, construction sites, even the hallway in my house. When I came back to the United States as a 14 year old, I saw a perfect green soccer pitch and did not know what to do with it. It was boring, predictable and expensive. I spent the next few years working in the family business and could not afford to be a soccer brat. While all the other brats were getting new adidas cleats I was working on big trucks after school trying to keep our family solvent. I am forty years old and I play footie twice a week. There are no forty year old academy brats. But a lot of my friends who grew up in other countries are still playing and they are older than me.
Kids all around the world would kick tin cans, tennis balls, rocks, plastic bottles or anything they could find if soccer ball is not available. Goal posts can be drawn on walls, or a simply a pair of sandals/shoes to mark the 2 posts needed. Kids from all sorts of ethnicities band together to play, 1 v 1, 2 v 2, 2 v 3......11 v 11. ... 20 v 20 ..I am not joking. There are no parents watching, need to fill up a form or pay a single dime to have a kick about. No fancy color jerseys, one side with shirts versus the other side without shirts. Bare feet, tennis shoes are ok if no cleats are available. Play in heavy rain or shine. Walk or bicycle to the playground - no mom dropping off in mini van needed. That's how world soccer greats are created.
Why football failed in America? Simple, Pay to Play. Unlike Europe, Africa and South America where young talents are discovered from the streets or from harsh conditions, American players have to pay money just to join football academies all over the country and those aren't cheap. Families from the middle to lower class income can't afford to pay money for their child to grow to become better players. Then NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are the biggest and most watched sports in America and not many watch football amid the rise of its popularity in America.
The thing it's been that way in the other sports for a long time too. AAU in basketball, Multiple position camps across the country in the summer not to mention the weight lifting you have to do for football. For baseball you have travel ball most of the spring and summer and hitting practice year round. Hockey is the most expensive sport to play in the US that is only played in less than half of the country.
This guy honestly makes some of the best football content. It’s not just made for views he clearly likes informing people. My dad born in 1944 told me about pele and New York but this is the first time I’ve seen a UA-camr cover it properly.
From personal experience whenever I tried out for a soccer team during elementary and middle school, it seemed like most of the time its just a rich kid club instead of ANYONE can join. Only kids with parents that had money seemed to make it into the main teams whereas those who werent as lucky got shafted.
@@la_joya4468and that's a problem too. One of the reasons why Brasil and Argentina are way too good in this sport is that they see football not only as a passion or even a religion, but also as one way to social progress. See how most of their clubs actually work and insist to take them as examples. Not forcing poor kids paying to play or getting minutes, giving them education, feeding them properly, etc. Quoting the walls of several Argentine clubs: "One kid inside any club, one less on the streets". Football is not only our passion or religion, it's a way of life. Greetings from Buenos Aires!
The sport is growing here but it really has been hampered by the fact we didn’t have a national league for so long. The Great Depression and soccer wars killed the ASL which should have been where football took root and history is developed. Those sentiments and views of football as a foreign’s sports was not able to be challenged, so the sport couldn’t grow. The USA has the appetite and can show genuine passion for a team, watch college football, the culture parallels the community, passionate fan culture of football in many ways. However because there was no way for the sport to take root until the 90’s, the US didn’t have a way to really popularize football.
Inter Miami is currnetly becoming the next NY Cosmos. Their total wages are 50% higher than the next team in the league and this doesn't even take into consideration all the commercial deals Messi and the gang are getting.
I think my MLS club with be fine, but I think after Messi and this team leave the club it will return to a level of “normalcy”. This is not substantially, we will be fighting for playoffs but I don’t believe we will be an annual contender for the playoffs. I hope I’m wrong though
I went to an Inter Miami Miami Match Before Messi and it was bare bones. Went there after Messi and it's Very Affluent. Everybody wants to be in the know when Messi & Co. are around.
The good news is that MLS built up a strong base before the Messi signing so they won’t be the NASL. Miami is building a new stadium in Miami-Dade so hopefully this encourages the fans to show up even post Messi. I’m a LA Galaxy fan and we’ve been able to stay popular even after the big signings.
@@mattgodwin1868 we don't have lebrons playing cricket the same way you guys don't have kohlis playing basketball. But the topic here is about team sports or popular sports.
@@manvithharikiran5576thats not what he’s saying im pretty sure. Kohli is unbelievably skilled but athletically and build wise, it isnt hard to find someone with that stature and athleticism anywhere else in the world. Whereas in the US you can find dudes who are genetic freaks (lebron) who could easily play multiple sports at a very high level due to their insane speed, jumping, and size. Skill is something you can always improve on whereas 90% of athleticism is pure genetics, something you can barely change.
As an American, MLS trying to create a closed ecosystem and pay to play are the obvious problems. What's worse is that we're starting to export these problems to Mexico. Liga MX has been getting worse ever since they've been getting closer to MLS
love this intro, yet to finish the video but I have been thinking about this for awhile. I think the differences in sports culture between the US and the rest of the world, such as the lack of relegation in the major sports leagues, how common it is for franchises to leave cities, etc., combined with how expensive it is to play soccer in the US, and competing with the popularity of american football, baseball, hockey and basketball, I think football will always be playing catch up. Whenever I've talked about this with others, I think about how on a surface level, football has a lot in common with baseball. Not a ton of scoring, and whole lot of "nothing", but build on momentum that leads to dramatic moments that have a ton of meaning and impact on the game when scores do occur.
I feel the lack of relegation even among MLS/USL combined with the popularity of other sports go hand in hand Say, Houston Dynamo are so bad they get relegated from MLS all the way down to USL1. Why would the average Houston sports fan care about third division American soccer when they can go watch the Astros or Texans and get far more enjoyment? Houston Dynamo would more than likely go bankrupt fairly quickly. Some people say the lack of pro/rel is because the people at the top are preventing it, but that's only part of the problem. In order to make pro/rel work in this country, you're going to have to singlehandedly change American sports culture.
US men’s soccer desperately needs a real win. Not some bull like the Gold Cup but at least a decent World Cup run, especially after the Copa America flop. The women’s game is doing great here, and I think the national team success is a big part of it. If the US desires to grow the men’s game here we have to show Americans that it’s worth following, because America loves winners and we have plenty of those to support.
@@Phoenix-vr6bvThe US will not develop talent because its federation still discriminate against Latin players. They wasted a generation or two with Klinsmann "importing" talent instead of setting country wide network scouring for overlooked talent. I remembered reading about Tab Ramos(?) was always overlooked because he wasn't on those academy teams (where parents paid huge fees).
I am huge football fan who is currently in the USA for study purpose for the last few years. As per my observation , football will never be big here because- 1. Americans have a really short attention span. They are only into sports which are normally very high scoring (like basketball,baseball and american football) and has a lot of interval in between to put in commercials. on the other parts of the world, the crowd goes at the stadium to see the game itself. But here in US, to keep the crowd at the stadium and the Television audience busy,they need cheerleaders,Kiss cams,halftime shows and lots of lots of breaks. You will see people munching on food more than focusing on the game itself. The fact that a soccer game can be a 2 hour long almost nonstop event with 0-0 scoreline will make many loose all interest in the sport itself. 2. You wont see kids playing soccer in the streets here. Soccer just isnt the part of american dream here. Even on the communities which you can call hoods, you will see kids mostly basketball. 3. its mostly for the rich and kids with parents over here. People outside US just dont realize how much hardship many americans have to face since childhood. Go to any public school and you will see that majority doesnt have any parental figure in their life and its impossible for them to bear the expenses of getting into an academy. However,The most fascinating thing is how mighty they are in the womens soccer. Its the number one women's sports in US and they are basically the Brazil of womens football. If they can build their mens team to be as half as good as their women's team then they are gonna be a force to reckon with.
Women have a great college system whereas the men do not. There was an article noting the fact of how many players from the women's world cup have developed in American colleges.
@@AmbushRL. you don't watch baseball for 45 minutes. you watch for 5 seconds, then relax for 60 seconds while they reset themselves, then you watch another 5 seconds. 10 seconds if someone gets an extra-base-hit. then, instead of 30 seconds between innings, there are 3 minutes, which is actually a tv ads break; that attitude has seeped into children's levels too, with unnecessarily long breaks between innings. so, yes, short attention span.
The women’s team became really good because there was investment put into women’s sports at a time when it was ignored in most of the world, now with Spain, England, and others greatly improving in the women’s game in such short time, it feels like the same issues with the men’s side will happen to the women, they just won’t be talented enough because of pay to play and better competition overseas now
I help the coaching staff of my High School's Boys Soccer Team, and at yesterday's away day, the opposing team was listing out all the kids who would be graduating and what they wanted to study in college. NONE of them wanted to be professional soccer players. This was the 2nd place team in our league. Aside from many other issues, we do a bad job at promoting the passion for the game that makes kids WANT to be professional footballers like they want to be pro NFL players, basketball players, or baseball players.
American Futbol is quite literally a joke. Even if you wanted to play 5-a-side, its like $10/hour, if you wanted to play a casual game with randoms while leagues have $100+ team registration fees
@@qkomodo9098 You can find cheap/free casual football if you look. I’m from Canada and during the summer I do organized adult drop in football, only $25 for the whole summer and we have enough people for a full 11vs11. Leagues on the other hand, yes, even when I was a kid registration fees were $200-$300 I believe and that’s not including equipment and uniforms. Let alone the adidas tracksuit which was mandatory for higher division teams
@@lol-bg4whI think I know. There’s an app where you can find local spots where games are scheduled to be played and register for a spot on a team, usually $10 or so. You’re basically paying for the event “organization” I think
As a former academy player, costs too much to play, get equipment, opportunities are limited, there’s no track for progress, you can go on Travel team games to Brazil or Germany, you can join camps, but unless you get a lucky shot you’re not getting in. Football here has no viable lower league system to get invested in which fr is crucial to have an incredibly strong first division.
Which is funny because during the NASL's best days, there were strong amateur leagues (at least in NYC). At seems when the MLS came to town, those leagues have disappeared 😔
idk why but just because of the channel name, I think it'd be hilarious if you made an NFL video for april fools. great video though, as always love your content
What killed American soccer is always greed and pride. NASL and MLS was created with greed in mind to get rich off the global popularity of the sport. It was never about actually growing it. The people who buy into MLS only sees the clubs as an asset. MLS is not even a traditional soccer league anyways. A normal soccer league is a governing body for independently owned soccer clubs competing in its competitions. The beauty of what I love about that structure is how communities are allowed to own full to majority shares of their local clubs. MLS is against that structure because it goes against their structure, which sees soccer clubs only as an asset. MLS is a club in of itself with franchise squads that take the image of a soccer clubs. MLS own majority shares of the franchises and player contracts outside of DP’s. The people that pay money to expand into that league are given the title as operator(s) of the franchise they started and is also an MLS board member with the other MLS’s franchisees. MLS was designed with college draft picking in mind. Even with clubs now having academies, there is just to many cities without an MLS team and free to play academies for that to be the primary route to becoming pro. Mostly every American that watch soccer was introduced either through the national team, video games, or through watching foreign soccer on TV/stream. MLS is just one of many leagues that’s on multiple streaming services and TV channels. Soccer is also a sport played by a lot of children in this country, yet have MLS as their best option if their parents don’t have dual citizenship like Pulisic. That’s bad.
Pay to play is the main reason Soccer will never be successful in America. Imagine you and three friends go to a park and get kicked out because you have to pay to play on the field, It’s ridiculous.
Football is slowly gaining track there due to influx of Latino population. They are gonna be a force in like 50 years. Poverty+love for football are a strong combination.
🤣 The sport was very popular here! In the 1950s (and earlier), the large immigrant population started amateur leagues across the country. In the bigger cities, it wasn't unusual to have "ethnic" leagues with two to four divisions. In NYC, there were several Italian, Greek, Hungarian and Irish leagues. During the 60s & 70s, schools started forming teams which grammar school children learned the game. What hampered the growth was that very talented children weren't able to pay outrageous fees to play on travel teams. Most of that talent started playing other sports
@@Dante-mr3rz except they’ll end up playing baseball or football due to better pay from NIL deals and scholarships for college. I don’t know of any colleges offering even a full scholarship for soccer much less a NIL deal
As a MLS season ticket holder I can safely say: Soccer it's here to stay. My team averages over 26,000 people in a stadium whose max capacity is 28,000. The league is almost 30 years old. Obviously Beckham, Zlatan and Messi have helped with its appeal and marketing, but they have been icing on the cake. Most people that follow MLS are fans of the teams, not just the individuals. We now have traditions, rivalries and city derbies. We have supporters that bring their own batucadas and ultras. The MLS isn't what the NASL was. We started in 1996 with 10 teams. In the 2025 season we will have 30 teams. And still with plenty of mayor markets to go. I'm looking at you Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Savanah, New Mexico, Huntsville, Rhode Island, Tampa, New Orleans, etc!
@@FootballIconicNot really. It's difficult for teams to keep their talent when the league owns the players. NY Red Bulls seemed to lose young players going overseas which means that they have to find another replacement and cannot market that player.
This is true, I support LA Galaxy and I’m currently in Houston to watch them play the Dynamo. The popularity is on the rise, it’s changed so much since 1996. Of course it isn’t perfect and a lot of work to do but the sport isn’t going anywhere.
@@BouncingSoulR6 once we get pitches in those trenches like Houston, Compton, Baton Rouge, Philly in general and nyc nasty rat as_, Dallas downtown, El Paso x Juarez kids, with sum Arizona (most crack head city in the USA, read ur newspaper) don’t even get me started if we added pitches in Baltimore, Detroit, Seattle downtown, Chicago above all, mid oblock. Imagine those hoods with a field to play on. We can get some dreamers from that.
Yank here. I played through college and am not from money. Shout out to all the parents who sacrificed so much to see their kids play a game they love.
@@benjaminaraya8073 I have seen it. But since then, we've had a lot of trouble, and scandal around our soccer association, fell off a bit, changed coaches, then finished 4th in the Copa America. Overall our rise continues to be quite interesting
Soccer isn’t big in the US because the other sports like American football, baseball, and basketball just dominate the sports scene and probably always will. It’s also a very pay to play sport too because unlike other countries like in Latin America and Europe where people play and make a name for themselves on the streets, players who wanna play have to pay lots of money to be in an academy to be seen by clubs 🤷🏻♂️ it’s also been considered like a little kids game as well so lots of people when they get older move on from the sport to others that are more popular in the US
I mean, it's not exactly true. I'm from Barcelona, and in Europe, you're not spotted on the streets. You go to your local club, and pay to play for it. It's probably not that much compared to the US, but then everything in the US is more expensive. Then clubs like Barcelona/Espanyol (clubs around my area that have big youth systems) have scouts all over the place, and watch these smaller teams, and catch you, and then that's when I think you don't have to pay. But for 99% of the people playing football here, they do have to pay (competitively I mean, you can play with your friends for fun and it's free of course). Cheers!
You're both wrong because if those children were playing in high school, they would've been playing football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and probably get a scholarship for basketball in college.
Whenever USA and football (or soccer) are mentioned together - I'll always go back to 1994, where my country of Bulgaria reached 4th - a peak that we never even got close to, and to be real - we never will...
This is a story of NASL. The downfall of MLS would be pay to play and the nil relegation system. Soccer needs to be introduced in grassroots level, not within the upper echelons of society. Money plays a part but it should never be the main obj. But hey, thats what is happening in EPL.
The reason why it hasn't worked in the USA is because grass roots football is locked behind expensive private academies that only rich families can afford. Other sports in the USA such as Basketball, Gridiron or Baseball have grassroots development programs in schools so kids from all backgrounds can benefit from scholarships. Until they make such a program for Football (soccer) in the USA, it will NEVER pick up. Ever.
Arguably the two biggest soccer events on US soil, the 94 WC final and the 99 WWC final, both ended in scoreless draws that went to PKs. Those two games only reinforced the notion most Americans have that soccer is a boring game with minimal scoring excitement. You only get one chance to make a first impression. But soccer somehow managed to blow two.
@@Brokenface baseball can be pretty boring, no doubt. But it's broken up into smaller segments and those little breaks help a lot for talking, restroom breaks, etc. Plus it has the advantage of being able to go from a loss to a win in one play, adding drama. Soccer can't do that. I suspect that's also why hockey hasn't caught on as well as the big three sports in America.
In high school when i was in 9th grade all my coaches thought i was going to make it far at least maybe the mls level. But the problem was its pay to play here my mom is a single mom so she couldn’t take me to every game n eventually i had to quit the team in 10th grade to start working part time to help. Had we move to england it would have been different. Teams offer so much resources as well as they PAY youth players to PLAY. Im 20 now and i wonder where i would be at if i was able to commit.
I think even India deserves a Video given how AFC Mohun Bagan got kicked out coz they refused to play us elsewhere for safety reasons and disqualified us whereas Arabian teams got what they want !! not only that Qatar's cheating against us got us out from World Cup Qualifiers !! Rename AFC as Arabian Football Confederation rather than Asian Football Confederation!! Our FIFA license almost got cancelled in 2022 coz of political influence !! So much Shenanigans man , then people wonder why we aren't progressing coz we ve so much turmoil going around us dragging us down!!
@@chinmaybapat6774 when politics from Country fell short , FIFA and AFC joined hands to fxxk us even more down the ground like P.Diddy to his guests !!
@@chinmaybapat6774 When political influence fell short , FIFA and AFC joined hands to bury us further down the ground like Undertaker tonhis WrestleMania victims !! What on Earth 🤬
That was an all-time low , Stimac rightfully for the sack for that @@jikan-o6x!! But my point is , How are players supposed to focus on game when Politics is completely surrounding and holding the game down actively just for Politicians to have more power !! Lots of Sports affairs here are more like Athletes vs Authority rather than Athletes supporting Authorities. There's so much more behind it !!
(US citizen in the Midwest) At a grassroots level the game is very popular for adults here, at least where I live. I am in my 40's and play year round in adult leagues plus pickup an additional few times per week. At the youth level, per many comments I see, it is very pay-to-play. It can be quite expensive to join a club and yes travel heavy which has cost as well. To be fair, it's the same for many sports here. MLS is growing but it still feels corporate and disconnected from rest of world. I don't follow it; I don't really know anyone who does or at least talks about it. AlL the fans are for EPL. I follow Bundesliga too.. anyway.
Thanks you I’m in the South an just started getting into the real football late your vid is really informative and entertaining not boring like the other ones I couldn’t watch
4:09 - hahahaha! That was a fun surprise! That and "Soccer ball champs" One of the biggest problems I've seen (as an American soccer fan and non-professional player throughout my life) we never modeled an Academy system like all across Europe. We never really went prime time on tv on the same level as American football and basketball, even with Pele and the Cosmos, and the movie he did with Stallone (I remember him then from the 70's - geeeze I'm old). Swag was hard to get, like I knew nobody with a Pele Cosmos jersey like I knew kids with Walter Payton's Super Bowl Chicago Bears jerseys. Your #4 in this video is a great point. Soccer should have been the same all around the world. Honestly though, if we had YT back in the day, Soccer would have been easier to swallow for the American public. Schools and clubs were becoming popular, but it wasn't really till we hosted a WC that Soccer became more popular in the US...that's exactly when we should have nailed down an Academy system. Great video brother!
Honestly, I feel like xenophobia is the main and I would damn near say only reason soccer isn't big here. Maybe xenophobia isn't the correct word, but the point I'm trying to make is if America had even just one soccer player that could be considered one of the absolute best in the world for his time and of all times, interest here would skyrocket. We just shun everything we can't argue we're the best at lol, especially sports.
They bought in foreign players back when racism was rampant in America. There was racial segregation in public transports and restaurants, the general public had a racist view on foreigners and soccer was said to be a foreigners favorite sport. Also, Americans loathed how Britain and other countries loved football. If you tried the same right now by bringing in Ronaldo, Messi Haaland Mbappe, Lamine Viniciusz Gaurdiola, Ancelotti then it would have a meteoric rise.
It's very difficult for any club team to get too far along without access to the Champions League. That's just the reality. Even clubs once considered "powerhouses" like Santos or Boca Juniors are now a fraction of what they once were. New York to London is over 6 hours whereas London to Istanbul (about as far as you can travel in the Champions League) is under 4. The geography problems are just hard to overcome.
I was like 6 yrs old when Pelé came to the Cosmos and the hype was incredible here in NY. I got swept-up in it as a kid and it grew my love of the game. So, i take umbridge with any disparagement of the legend. That said, in any business where marketing takes precedence over product, it was only a matter of time before the doors shut.
Most of the kids my age would much rather play American football or basketball, or really anything else. So I think the sport won’t grow much from here unfortunately
Will never forget the kid who I played with as a kid who came from Croatia and literally moved back because his family couldn’t afford to help pay for his career here.
It’s definitely starting to become popular with us regular people here or at least where I live… literally can’t find a park with a post and net that’s not absolutely flooded with people
1. Teams are too few and far between and expensive to watch 2. Pay to play…if you want decent coaching and competition you need to drop $$$ 3. Many Americans see the faked injuries, usually used to sell a foul and call them softies and weak…although that’s exactly one of the reasons why the sport is growing here youth wise, parents don’t want their kids getting horrible injuries
The first two apply to the other major sports as well and flopping exists in the other leagues as well, with it becoming especially prominent and annoying in the NBA. Really the main reason parents push their kids into other sports the older they get is because there's far, far more money in the domestic leagues for other sports. Even if they stick with football/soccer and go to Europe and are among the best then chances are pretty high that they'd still make less per season than a high end relief pitcher would in MLB.
IMO another reason why soccer failed in America was the lack of culture... First Stanley Cup was won in 1893, MLB has been around since the 1900s, NBA since 1950s, NFL's first superbowl was 1960s...and then MLS was born in 1995 but didn't start until 1996. You walk down the street of NYC, you see Mets and Yankees hats on corners of every street because those teams have been around for so long that people can say their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were fans of said teams. The same can rarely be said with MLS. Luckily there are lots of teams now who have been around long enough where people can say their parents took them to games as a kid, but we still lack the traditions like hosting viewing parties for MLS Cup final. Although MLS came 40 years after the first Superbowl ever, it's extremely impressive to see how much the league has grown in such a short amount of time!
Im pretty happy with the current state of football here. 10 years ago no one cared for it. Now you see kids in kits and people watching matches in bars it makes me so happy to see it continue to grow
They made the same mistake again with Messi tbh… Hes a massive piece of the pie and since those initial months following his signing for Miami, the league has pretty much gone back to the low viewership and boring games it was having before Messi… It made sense with Beckham and Zlatan because at least those guys had brass and marketable personalities that made them fun to follow but Messi has none of that. Its hard to imagine the average American who is more into College / NFL football, the NBA, or the MLB to care about a league where the best player is someone who is a quiet person and refuses to even learn English… imo that $150 million salary and whatever percentages of the league and its revenue he was given would’ve been much better suited being invested into un-fucking the atrocious youth development system that had plagued American soccer since the sport first became popular here when Pele came through.
Another issue is that Apple TV was charging for ridiculous prices for MLS season pass, so like me I imagine people were turned off by that. The football is terrible as well, nobody wants to watch a game where the defense makes stupid errors daily
@Football Iconic Good video as always. PLEASE I would like you to do a video on THE SORRY STATE OF GHANA FOOTBALL. I will even help you with it to expose the rot for free with not shout-out or anything. Our football is on a Cataclysmic demise and no one wants to do anything about it from clueless FA to the bodies around it. Thanks 👍
Pay to play obv the big one. But from a viewership standpoint, I feel like we could see growth on the horizon more and more. Having the game with no ad breaks in a world where every other sport keeps cramming tv timeouts for ads in, I think will make it more attractive of a product to the next generation of sports fans
Horrendous, I agree. Typical titans-of-industry types who thought they knew better while having little to no understanding of the game they thought they'd "improve ". 😮
The Brazilian government changed the law to prevent any attempt by Pelé to leave the country. All of Santos' friendlies had to be previously approved by the government, and any departure of Pelé from the country had to be announced in advance. The dictatorship depended on his image to try to keep people under control, he never had the option to leave.
To be fair to the US, they're still pretty good compared to many countries that primarily focuses on football. My country still haven't breached the top 100 since the 2000-s. The US should be proud to be dominant in many sports.
The last year of the NASL was coincidentally the same as the 1984 LA Olympics. The turnout to the football games was very big which inspired FIFA at the time that America might be ready to host the World Cup. So they approached the USSF and USA was awarded the 94 World Cup which became the new springboard to restart the beautiful game and the rest is history. It seems this time, football will be part of American culture for good which has moved from a fringe fad to slowly becoming part of mainstream culture.
Upon seeing the title, and after growing up in america and experiencing how people talk about soccer vs american football, and all the BS, my biggest fear was that this video would center Pele. Have a good day
Soccer/Football in America is a Mixed Bag. Its Popular in a few places. In a lot of places its not. Money has become an issue when it come to whether or not your Kid could play Yourh Soccer. We definitely missed out on several players.
its priorities. The best young US athletes dont want to play "Soccer" they want to play in the NBA NFL NHL MLB and now UFC. If they changed the perception of the sport, get the best kids on board and spend the sums they do on youth training in those other sports theyd be a force. Problem is their footballers are the guys not good enough to make it in a sport the country actually cares about, and a few average players whos dream was always football. they only lack the talent because the talent is bust doing other stuff. I'm not American.
@@jikan-o6x get them as kids to focus on playing football instead of the other sports they will learn skill, similar to how European teams train youth players. athletes are adaptable if you get them early enough, im not saying take a dude from nfl put him in shorts and he scores a hattrick.
Theres no punishment for failing in the MLS which IMO is a huge negative as the only way to move into the MLS is to pay. Its an elitest form of football, something we have all been rebelling against as fans
A better question would be why modern American, Russian, Indian and Chinese "native" popular sports and leisure activities have never been popular anywhere else in the world.
The take that "if only the US were interested in Football they'd absolutely dominate the sport" is so ridiculous and so very arrogant in a very American way. There is no way that the US would win a world cup, even if they were as crazy about the beautiful game as Brazil is.
Tinashe, you missed one key factor in your analysis which also explains why football never took off in my country, Australia. A more-violent sport was already ubiquitous, and men, as we know, are always trying to prove their masculinity above most else, leading to football being perennially derided as un-masculine.
@@jikan-o6x Yeah, but those nfl players would be gassed and fall over themselves if the tried playing soccer. Anyways, the point was made that soccer players weren't physical.
This video is a remake of one I made a few years back. It was maybe the most fun I’ve had making a “retro” video, but the actual video turned out trash. So here’s a bigger and better one! Hope you enjoy.
Could have waited until the 2026 wc
you english called it soccer. its your own fault
@@Chimera.JackMeHoff no u
@@Vivi_9 its literally fact that the English called it soccer. grow up lad. facts over your feelings
@Chimera.JackMeHoff who hurt you bro?
pay to play
Nigga ain’t even watched the video lol. This is a period before pay to play was really a thing.
This video is about the NASL, actually watch the video before you comment.
Pay to play, indeed. There's no way someone should pay over $10 to play 5 a side for an hour
@@USMNT1913 nah
@@TerrificSomebodyBrain damage, got it
As an American, I feel it comes down to 3 things.
1. USSF doesn't really care about growing the game and expanding it's reach and scouting new players. They haven't done enough to give people a chance to be seen
2. MLS is devil. USL and MLS are the 2 big ones. If they work together they would do so much good but all they care about is money and gatekeeping it to themselves.
3. Actual good youth teams are EXPENSIVE and travel heavy. I have seen this to, many teams in my area need massive amounts of money and travel. This makes it so there is less chance for people to have an actual chance to be seen by local teams and have more experience.
Your #2… if they would work together and implement a closed league system the sport would grow so much!!!
Everything you said is true, but #3 is why the sport isn't blowing up because the national team isn't blowing up BECAUSE OF PAY TO PLAY. In Europe teenagers are getting f'ing PAID TO PLAY. It's not hard to see why the kids there are excited to play and developing into stars.
From DAY ONE when a European or South American kid shows special talent they are put into academies with ELITE COACHING (way better coaching than in the US) where they make a little bit of money (enough to make the time spent by their parents worth it) AND there are clear future financial incentives.
Elite players at elite academies start making 6 figures as soon as they turn 17. That's how I know the academy system works at my club, Arsenal, and at the academies of the mega rich top half of the Premier League.
Dont blame USL. They're just trying to function and MLS actively tries to sabotage them and shoot them down. It's funny bc that should be up to USSF to make them work together but they don't bc MLS has a stranglehold on them. Also an open system would be great but we're not ready for it yet structurally. Eventually, but not yet
Naa I think you guys just have a lot going on compared to other countries, movie & show bis, music bis, NBA and many more more, you guys have a lot more other ways to entertain yourself and the rest of the world that it doesn't matter if football isn't a major sport for you guys. In a way you kinda lucky
@@Asshat237 The biggest problem here in the United States is just how large the country is. In order to play against other teams, you might have to travel some distance, which drives up costs.
Academy brats vs street kids.
I grew up in Lebanon playing where ever we could- parking lots, streets, construction sites, even the hallway in my house.
When I came back to the United States as a 14 year old, I saw a perfect green soccer pitch and did not know what to do with it. It was boring, predictable and expensive. I spent the next few years working in the family business and could not afford to be a soccer brat. While all the other brats were getting new adidas cleats I was working on big trucks after school trying to keep our family solvent.
I am forty years old and I play footie twice a week. There are no forty year old academy brats. But a lot of my friends who grew up in other countries are still playing and they are older than me.
Kids all around the world would kick tin cans, tennis balls, rocks, plastic bottles or anything they could find if soccer ball is not available. Goal posts can be drawn on walls, or a simply a pair of sandals/shoes to mark the 2 posts needed. Kids from all sorts of ethnicities band together to play, 1 v 1, 2 v 2, 2 v 3......11 v 11. ... 20 v 20 ..I am not joking. There are no parents watching, need to fill up a form or pay a single dime to have a kick about. No fancy color jerseys, one side with shirts versus the other side without shirts. Bare feet, tennis shoes are ok if no cleats are available. Play in heavy rain or shine. Walk or bicycle to the playground - no mom dropping off in mini van needed. That's how world soccer greats are created.
Main reason my close ball control is good is because I practiced in a small hallway a lot… that brought back a lot of memories
@@alexman8800my dad said sometimes in 1940’s Scotland they would use paper and tape to make a ball. Near Glasgow, poor area
street kids are the worst, sure they have talent but no brains or teamwork
"boring predictable" (pitch)
Look at who's being a brat😅 blaming pitch like Mourinho
Why football failed in America? Simple, Pay to Play. Unlike Europe, Africa and South America where young talents are discovered from the streets or from harsh conditions, American players have to pay money just to join football academies all over the country and those aren't cheap. Families from the middle to lower class income can't afford to pay money for their child to grow to become better players. Then NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL are the biggest and most watched sports in America and not many watch football amid the rise of its popularity in America.
What you are describing is also the reality in Germany. I don’t think that’s the case.
The thing it's been that way in the other sports for a long time too. AAU in basketball, Multiple position camps across the country in the summer not to mention the weight lifting you have to do for football. For baseball you have travel ball most of the spring and summer and hitting practice year round. Hockey is the most expensive sport to play in the US that is only played in less than half of the country.
Australia is the same
Sorry bro. Unfortunately you pay here too, but to obtain favors.
Re-upload or not, awesome video.
I am seeing it for the first time.
Yeah its a good one
This guy honestly makes some of the best football content. It’s not just made for views he clearly likes informing people. My dad born in 1944 told me about pele and New York but this is the first time I’ve seen a UA-camr cover it properly.
Remake* not re-upload
From personal experience whenever I tried out for a soccer team during elementary and middle school, it seemed like most of the time its just a rich kid club instead of ANYONE can join. Only kids with parents that had money seemed to make it into the main teams whereas those who werent as lucky got shafted.
This feels like a growing problem with AAU sports and the overly capitalistic nature of sports in the US in general
Welcome to America haha
@@la_joya4468and that's a problem too. One of the reasons why Brasil and Argentina are way too good in this sport is that they see football not only as a passion or even a religion, but also as one way to social progress. See how most of their clubs actually work and insist to take them as examples. Not forcing poor kids paying to play or getting minutes, giving them education, feeding them properly, etc.
Quoting the walls of several Argentine clubs: "One kid inside any club, one less on the streets". Football is not only our passion or religion, it's a way of life.
Greetings from Buenos Aires!
@@pequenodan1923this is awesome. Football was originally created as the working man's game
All you needed for Football is a ball.
And in europe we got "FREE" playgrounds with goals.
We even played in the breaks in school ^^
The sport is growing here but it really has been hampered by the fact we didn’t have a national league for so long. The Great Depression and soccer wars killed the ASL which should have been where football took root and history is developed. Those sentiments and views of football as a foreign’s sports was not able to be challenged, so the sport couldn’t grow. The USA has the appetite and can show genuine passion for a team, watch college football, the culture parallels the community, passionate fan culture of football in many ways. However because there was no way for the sport to take root until the 90’s, the US didn’t have a way to really popularize football.
Inter Miami is currnetly becoming the next NY Cosmos. Their total wages are 50% higher than the next team in the league and this doesn't even take into consideration all the commercial deals Messi and the gang are getting.
Isn't there a salary cap in the MLS or do all the other teams have a lot of cap space?
I think my MLS club with be fine, but I think after Messi and this team leave the club it will return to a level of “normalcy”. This is not substantially, we will be fighting for playoffs but I don’t believe we will be an annual contender for the playoffs. I hope I’m wrong though
@@fairphoneuser9009 there is a salary cap BUT they’ll have designated player exemptions from it. So yeah, sort of.
I went to an Inter Miami Miami Match Before Messi and it was bare bones. Went there after Messi and it's Very Affluent. Everybody wants to be in the know when Messi & Co. are around.
The good news is that MLS built up a strong base before the Messi signing so they won’t be the NASL. Miami is building a new stadium in Miami-Dade so hopefully this encourages the fans to show up even post Messi.
I’m a LA Galaxy fan and we’ve been able to stay popular even after the big signings.
All the way from Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 big fan❤❤🎉
Shout out to you my fellow countryman💪🏾
Your videos are always great, shout out to the Zim brother for keep such good work
The biggest problem soccer has in the US is basketball it owns the streets
this. same with Cricket and India.
Yep football is a grassroots sport although in schools it's pretty popular
@@manvithharikiran5576India simply doesn’t have the same caliber of athletes you don’t have lebrons playing cricket let’s be real
@@mattgodwin1868 we don't have lebrons playing cricket the same way you guys don't have kohlis playing basketball. But the topic here is about team sports or popular sports.
@@manvithharikiran5576thats not what he’s saying im pretty sure. Kohli is unbelievably skilled but athletically and build wise, it isnt hard to find someone with that stature and athleticism anywhere else in the world. Whereas in the US you can find dudes who are genetic freaks (lebron) who could easily play multiple sports at a very high level due to their insane speed, jumping, and size. Skill is something you can always improve on whereas 90% of athleticism is pure genetics, something you can barely change.
As an American, MLS trying to create a closed ecosystem and pay to play are the obvious problems. What's worse is that we're starting to export these problems to Mexico. Liga MX has been getting worse ever since they've been getting closer to MLS
love this intro, yet to finish the video but I have been thinking about this for awhile. I think the differences in sports culture between the US and the rest of the world, such as the lack of relegation in the major sports leagues, how common it is for franchises to leave cities, etc., combined with how expensive it is to play soccer in the US, and competing with the popularity of american football, baseball, hockey and basketball, I think football will always be playing catch up.
Whenever I've talked about this with others, I think about how on a surface level, football has a lot in common with baseball. Not a ton of scoring, and whole lot of "nothing", but build on momentum that leads to dramatic moments that have a ton of meaning and impact on the game when scores do occur.
I feel the lack of relegation even among MLS/USL combined with the popularity of other sports go hand in hand
Say, Houston Dynamo are so bad they get relegated from MLS all the way down to USL1. Why would the average Houston sports fan care about third division American soccer when they can go watch the Astros or Texans and get far more enjoyment? Houston Dynamo would more than likely go bankrupt fairly quickly.
Some people say the lack of pro/rel is because the people at the top are preventing it, but that's only part of the problem.
In order to make pro/rel work in this country, you're going to have to singlehandedly change American sports culture.
@@Bullwinedamn, I never realized how bad it is over there
@@Poussyeater-w5eit’s not bad, just different than the rest of the world. But that doesn’t mean it’s “bad”
US men’s soccer desperately needs a real win. Not some bull like the Gold Cup but at least a decent World Cup run, especially after the Copa America flop. The women’s game is doing great here, and I think the national team success is a big part of it. If the US desires to grow the men’s game here we have to show Americans that it’s worth following, because America loves winners and we have plenty of those to support.
@@Phoenix-vr6bvThe US will not develop talent because its federation still discriminate against Latin players. They wasted a generation or two with Klinsmann "importing" talent instead of setting country wide network scouring for overlooked talent. I remembered reading about Tab Ramos(?) was always overlooked because he wasn't on those academy teams (where parents paid huge fees).
I am huge football fan who is currently in the USA for study purpose for the last few years. As per my observation , football will never be big here because-
1. Americans have a really short attention span. They are only into sports which are normally very high scoring (like basketball,baseball and american football) and has a lot of interval in between to put in commercials. on the other parts of the world, the crowd goes at the stadium to see the game itself. But here in US, to keep the crowd at the stadium and the Television audience busy,they need cheerleaders,Kiss cams,halftime shows and lots of lots of breaks. You will see people munching on food more than focusing on the game itself. The fact that a soccer game can be a 2 hour long almost nonstop event with 0-0 scoreline will make many loose all interest in the sport itself.
2. You wont see kids playing soccer in the streets here. Soccer just isnt the part of american dream here. Even on the communities which you can call hoods, you will see kids mostly basketball.
3. its mostly for the rich and kids with parents over here. People outside US just dont realize how much hardship many americans have to face since childhood. Go to any public school and you will see that majority doesnt have any parental figure in their life and its impossible for them to bear the expenses of getting into an academy.
However,The most fascinating thing is how mighty they are in the womens soccer. Its the number one women's sports in US and they are basically the Brazil of womens football. If they can build their mens team to be as half as good as their women's team then they are gonna be a force to reckon with.
Women have a great college system whereas the men do not. There was an article noting the fact of how many players from the women's world cup have developed in American colleges.
Americans don't have a short attention span. (Like seriously many watch baseball.)
@@AmbushRL. you don't watch baseball for 45 minutes. you watch for 5 seconds, then relax for 60 seconds while they reset themselves, then you watch another 5 seconds. 10 seconds if someone gets an extra-base-hit. then, instead of 30 seconds between innings, there are 3 minutes, which is actually a tv ads break; that attitude has seeped into children's levels too, with unnecessarily long breaks between innings. so, yes, short attention span.
The women’s team became really good because there was investment put into women’s sports at a time when it was ignored in most of the world, now with Spain, England, and others greatly improving in the women’s game in such short time, it feels like the same issues with the men’s side will happen to the women, they just won’t be talented enough because of pay to play and better competition overseas now
@@andymunoz6716 Actually, the women's team flourished inspite of the lack of investments. In fact, the men's receives more than the women's.
I help the coaching staff of my High School's Boys Soccer Team, and at yesterday's away day, the opposing team was listing out all the kids who would be graduating and what they wanted to study in college. NONE of them wanted to be professional soccer players. This was the 2nd place team in our league. Aside from many other issues, we do a bad job at promoting the passion for the game that makes kids WANT to be professional footballers like they want to be pro NFL players, basketball players, or baseball players.
American Futbol is quite literally a joke. Even if you wanted to play 5-a-side, its like $10/hour, if you wanted to play a casual game with randoms while leagues have $100+ team registration fees
Lmao here in England you just get 10 of your mates and find a field.
@@Sirius1914 If you want to play sports in the US, you have to be a REAL breadwinner. This country is too greedy
@@qkomodo9098 You can find cheap/free casual football if you look. I’m from Canada and during the summer I do organized adult drop in football, only $25 for the whole summer and we have enough people for a full 11vs11. Leagues on the other hand, yes, even when I was a kid registration fees were $200-$300 I believe and that’s not including equipment and uniforms. Let alone the adidas tracksuit which was mandatory for higher division teams
@@Sirius1914its the same in the usa i dont know what theyre talking about
@@lol-bg4whI think I know. There’s an app where you can find local spots where games are scheduled to be played and register for a spot on a team, usually $10 or so. You’re basically paying for the event “organization” I think
As a former academy player, costs too much to play, get equipment, opportunities are limited, there’s no track for progress, you can go on Travel team games to Brazil or Germany, you can join camps, but unless you get a lucky shot you’re not getting in. Football here has no viable lower league system to get invested in which fr is crucial to have an incredibly strong first division.
Which is funny because during the NASL's best days, there were strong amateur leagues (at least in NYC). At seems when the MLS came to town, those leagues have disappeared 😔
@@charlesray9674Funnily enough I’m from NYC 😂, and yup all but gone, all the fun rivalries and matchups.
@@oj397 And very missed!
if the league is started by investors youre already cooked, imagine every team being like psg, man city or any rb team
idk why but just because of the channel name, I think it'd be hilarious if you made an NFL video for april fools. great video though, as always love your content
THIS UPLOAD SCHEDULE THO 🔥
So the Red Scare also contributed to the death of soccer in America?
Wow man, McCarthy really fucked us up.
What killed American soccer is always greed and pride. NASL and MLS was created with greed in mind to get rich off the global popularity of the sport. It was never about actually growing it. The people who buy into MLS only sees the clubs as an asset. MLS is not even a traditional soccer league anyways. A normal soccer league is a governing body for independently owned soccer clubs competing in its competitions. The beauty of what I love about that structure is how communities are allowed to own full to majority shares of their local clubs. MLS is against that structure because it goes against their structure, which sees soccer clubs only as an asset. MLS is a club in of itself with franchise squads that take the image of a soccer clubs. MLS own majority shares of the franchises and player contracts outside of DP’s. The people that pay money to expand into that league are given the title as operator(s) of the franchise they started and is also an MLS board member with the other MLS’s franchisees.
MLS was designed with college draft picking in mind. Even with clubs now having academies, there is just to many cities without an MLS team and free to play academies for that to be the primary route to becoming pro. Mostly every American that watch soccer was introduced either through the national team, video games, or through watching foreign soccer on TV/stream. MLS is just one of many leagues that’s on multiple streaming services and TV channels. Soccer is also a sport played by a lot of children in this country, yet have MLS as their best option if their parents don’t have dual citizenship like Pulisic. That’s bad.
Pay to play is the main reason Soccer will never be successful in America. Imagine you and three friends go to a park and get kicked out because you have to pay to play on the field, It’s ridiculous.
You don't have to pay to play at a public park.
Football is slowly gaining track there due to influx of Latino population. They are gonna be a force in like 50 years. Poverty+love for football are a strong combination.
🤣 The sport was very popular here! In the 1950s (and earlier), the large immigrant population started amateur leagues across the country. In the bigger cities, it wasn't unusual to have "ethnic" leagues with two to four divisions. In NYC, there were several Italian, Greek, Hungarian and Irish leagues. During the 60s & 70s, schools started forming teams which grammar school children learned the game.
What hampered the growth was that very talented children weren't able to pay outrageous fees to play on travel teams. Most of that talent started playing other sports
@@Dante-mr3rz except they’ll end up playing baseball or football due to better pay from NIL deals and scholarships for college. I don’t know of any colleges offering even a full scholarship for soccer much less a NIL deal
@@rabbi4skin666 you don't get NIL deals for playing baseball. Baseball doesn't even generate revenue for the NCAA or colleges.
The Latinos we have (Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Central Americans) aren't exactly dominant at football.
@@jikan-o6x but its popular in their countries
2:46 aye man England called it soccer first we just ran with it longer bc of American football league (afl) got bigger in the USA than the nacl.
As a MLS season ticket holder I can safely say: Soccer it's here to stay. My team averages over 26,000 people in a stadium whose max capacity is 28,000. The league is almost 30 years old. Obviously Beckham, Zlatan and Messi have helped with its appeal and marketing, but they have been icing on the cake. Most people that follow MLS are fans of the teams, not just the individuals. We now have traditions, rivalries and city derbies. We have supporters that bring their own batucadas and ultras. The MLS isn't what the NASL was. We started in 1996 with 10 teams. In the 2025 season we will have 30 teams. And still with plenty of mayor markets to go. I'm looking at you Sacramento, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Savanah, New Mexico, Huntsville, Rhode Island, Tampa, New Orleans, etc!
Amazing to hear!
@@FootballIconicNot really. It's difficult for teams to keep their talent when the league owns the players. NY Red Bulls seemed to lose young players going overseas which means that they have to find another replacement and cannot market that player.
@@charlesray9674as long as those young stars are American or Mexican American that’s fine they can play for team USA or Mexico
This is true, I support LA Galaxy and I’m currently in Houston to watch them play the Dynamo. The popularity is on the rise, it’s changed so much since 1996. Of course it isn’t perfect and a lot of work to do but the sport isn’t going anywhere.
@@BouncingSoulR6 once we get pitches in those trenches like Houston, Compton, Baton Rouge, Philly in general and nyc nasty rat as_, Dallas downtown, El Paso x Juarez kids, with sum Arizona (most crack head city in the USA, read ur newspaper) don’t even get me started if we added pitches in Baltimore, Detroit, Seattle downtown, Chicago above all, mid oblock. Imagine those hoods with a field to play on. We can get some dreamers from that.
Yank here. I played through college and am not from money. Shout out to all the parents who sacrificed so much to see their kids play a game they love.
I'm Canadian. Could you do a video about soccer in Canada, and the rapid rise of our national team?
Have you seen Maqwell’s video. He did a video about the rise of the Canadian national team around the time of the 2022 World Cup
@@benjaminaraya8073 I have seen it. But since then, we've had a lot of trouble, and scandal around our soccer association, fell off a bit, changed coaches, then finished 4th in the Copa America. Overall our rise continues to be quite interesting
Nice to see more Canadian Prem games being broadcast here in northeastern US 😊
Soccer isn’t big in the US because the other sports like American football, baseball, and basketball just dominate the sports scene and probably always will. It’s also a very pay to play sport too because unlike other countries like in Latin America and Europe where people play and make a name for themselves on the streets, players who wanna play have to pay lots of money to be in an academy to be seen by clubs 🤷🏻♂️ it’s also been considered like a little kids game as well so lots of people when they get older move on from the sport to others that are more popular in the US
I mean, it's not exactly true. I'm from Barcelona, and in Europe, you're not spotted on the streets. You go to your local club, and pay to play for it. It's probably not that much compared to the US, but then everything in the US is more expensive.
Then clubs like Barcelona/Espanyol (clubs around my area that have big youth systems) have scouts all over the place, and watch these smaller teams, and catch you, and then that's when I think you don't have to pay.
But for 99% of the people playing football here, they do have to pay (competitively I mean, you can play with your friends for fun and it's free of course). Cheers!
If it was introduced to black children before basketball it would have been dominant in the US
It would have just been baseball and football like it was in the 70s
You're both wrong because if those children were playing in high school, they would've been playing football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring and probably get a scholarship for basketball in college.
Tinashe generational run🗣🔥🔥
Whenever USA and football (or soccer) are mentioned together - I'll always go back to 1994, where my country of Bulgaria reached 4th - a peak that we never even got close to, and to be real - we never will...
i like before i even watch that shows how consistently good the content has been. big up man
yet another fantastic video, very interesting and educational, keep it up man
This is a story of NASL.
The downfall of MLS would be pay to play and the nil relegation system. Soccer needs to be introduced in grassroots level, not within the upper echelons of society. Money plays a part but it should never be the main obj.
But hey, thats what is happening in EPL.
The reason why it hasn't worked in the USA is because grass roots football is locked behind expensive private academies that only rich families can afford.
Other sports in the USA such as Basketball, Gridiron or Baseball have grassroots development programs in schools so kids from all backgrounds can benefit from scholarships.
Until they make such a program for Football (soccer) in the USA, it will NEVER pick up. Ever.
0:52 your humor is unmatched
I'm proud as a shopee employee
Arguably the two biggest soccer events on US soil, the 94 WC final and the 99 WWC final,
both ended in scoreless draws that went to PKs.
Those two games only reinforced the notion most Americans have that soccer is a
boring game with minimal scoring excitement.
You only get one chance to make a first impression.
But soccer somehow managed to blow two.
And then why they love a more boring sport like baseball
@@Brokenface baseball can be pretty boring, no doubt. But it's broken up into smaller segments and those little breaks help a lot for talking, restroom breaks, etc. Plus it has the advantage of being able to go from a loss to a win in one play, adding drama. Soccer can't do that. I suspect that's also why hockey hasn't caught on as well as the big three sports in America.
In high school when i was in 9th grade all my coaches thought i was going to make it far at least maybe the mls level. But the problem was its pay to play here my mom is a single mom so she couldn’t take me to every game n eventually i had to quit the team in 10th grade to start working part time to help. Had we move to england it would have been different. Teams offer so much resources as well as they PAY youth players to PLAY. Im 20 now and i wonder where i would be at if i was able to commit.
Football failed in the US because sport relay heavily on culture. The US has its own unique culture (like everybody else).
That's why those big European clubs love coming here in the summer.
I think even India deserves a Video given how AFC Mohun Bagan got kicked out coz they refused to play us elsewhere for safety reasons and disqualified us whereas Arabian teams got what they want !!
not only that
Qatar's cheating against us got us out from World Cup Qualifiers !!
Rename AFC as Arabian Football Confederation rather than Asian Football Confederation!!
Our FIFA license almost got cancelled in 2022 coz of political influence !!
So much Shenanigans man , then people wonder why we aren't progressing coz we ve so much turmoil going around us dragging us down!!
Well said brother. The present and future of Indian football is being destroyed by political influence.
@@chinmaybapat6774 when politics from Country fell short , FIFA and AFC joined hands to fxxk us even more down the ground like P.Diddy to his guests !!
@@chinmaybapat6774 When political influence fell short , FIFA and AFC joined hands to bury us further down the ground like Undertaker tonhis WrestleMania victims !! What on Earth 🤬
respectfully, India lost to Afghanistan. How good are Indian players really? I can't think of any notable ones.
That was an all-time low , Stimac rightfully for the sack for that @@jikan-o6x!! But my point is , How are players supposed to focus on game when Politics is completely surrounding and holding the game down actively just for Politicians to have more power !! Lots of Sports affairs here are more like Athletes vs Authority rather than Athletes supporting Authorities. There's so much more behind it !!
(US citizen in the Midwest) At a grassroots level the game is very popular for adults here, at least where I live. I am in my 40's and play year round in adult leagues plus pickup an additional few times per week. At the youth level, per many comments I see, it is very pay-to-play. It can be quite expensive to join a club and yes travel heavy which has cost as well. To be fair, it's the same for many sports here. MLS is growing but it still feels corporate and disconnected from rest of world. I don't follow it; I don't really know anyone who does or at least talks about it. AlL the fans are for EPL. I follow Bundesliga too.. anyway.
Thanks you I’m in the South an just started getting into the real football late your vid is really informative and entertaining not boring like the other ones I couldn’t watch
4:09 - hahahaha! That was a fun surprise! That and "Soccer ball champs"
One of the biggest problems I've seen (as an American soccer fan and non-professional player throughout my life) we never modeled an Academy system like all across Europe. We never really went prime time on tv on the same level as American football and basketball, even with Pele and the Cosmos, and the movie he did with Stallone (I remember him then from the 70's - geeeze I'm old). Swag was hard to get, like I knew nobody with a Pele Cosmos jersey like I knew kids with Walter Payton's Super Bowl Chicago Bears jerseys.
Your #4 in this video is a great point. Soccer should have been the same all around the world.
Honestly though, if we had YT back in the day, Soccer would have been easier to swallow for the American public.
Schools and clubs were becoming popular, but it wasn't really till we hosted a WC that Soccer became more popular in the US...that's exactly when we should have nailed down an Academy system.
Great video brother!
I literally went to rewatch your old one a week ago. I guess I'll learn about the Pele effect again 😂😂😂😂
Keep up the good work
Honestly, I feel like xenophobia is the main and I would damn near say only reason soccer isn't big here.
Maybe xenophobia isn't the correct word, but the point I'm trying to make is if America had even just one soccer player that could be considered one of the absolute best in the world for his time and of all times, interest here would skyrocket.
We just shun everything we can't argue we're the best at lol, especially sports.
Too much competition from other sports. The best American child athletes will not choose to play soccer.
They bought in foreign players back when racism was rampant in America.
There was racial segregation in public transports and restaurants, the general public had a racist view on foreigners and soccer was said to be a foreigners favorite sport.
Also, Americans loathed how Britain and other countries loved football.
If you tried the same right now by bringing in Ronaldo, Messi Haaland Mbappe, Lamine Viniciusz Gaurdiola, Ancelotti then it would have a meteoric rise.
That was largely dissolved in the 1960s thanks to laws and court orders. This was the 1970s
The biggest sliding doors moment in Americas footballing history was the 'Soccer Wars' of the late 1920's
It's very difficult for any club team to get too far along without access to the Champions League. That's just the reality. Even clubs once considered "powerhouses" like Santos or Boca Juniors are now a fraction of what they once were.
New York to London is over 6 hours whereas London to Istanbul (about as far as you can travel in the Champions League) is under 4. The geography problems are just hard to overcome.
They just care abt that cash too much
Hand Egg - the disrespect 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I was like 6 yrs old when Pelé came to the Cosmos and the hype was incredible here in NY. I got swept-up in it as a kid and it grew my love of the game. So, i take umbridge with any disparagement of the legend.
That said, in any business where marketing takes precedence over product, it was only a matter of time before the doors shut.
Most of the kids my age would much rather play American football or basketball, or really anything else. So I think the sport won’t grow much from here unfortunately
Will never forget the kid who I played with as a kid who came from Croatia and literally moved back because his family couldn’t afford to help pay for his career here.
It’s definitely starting to become popular with us regular people here or at least where I live… literally can’t find a park with a post and net that’s not absolutely flooded with people
1. Teams are too few and far between and expensive to watch
2. Pay to play…if you want decent coaching and competition you need to drop $$$
3. Many Americans see the faked injuries, usually used to sell a foul and call them softies and weak…although that’s exactly one of the reasons why the sport is growing here youth wise, parents don’t want their kids getting horrible injuries
I’ve seen Lebron and Embiid commit the most atrocious dives/flops of all time, but God forbid Neymar dives to avoid getting two footed.
@@FootballIconic true, but the audience quickly forgets about that one said players dive when he drives up the court and slam dunks.
The first two apply to the other major sports as well and flopping exists in the other leagues as well, with it becoming especially prominent and annoying in the NBA. Really the main reason parents push their kids into other sports the older they get is because there's far, far more money in the domestic leagues for other sports. Even if they stick with football/soccer and go to Europe and are among the best then chances are pretty high that they'd still make less per season than a high end relief pitcher would in MLB.
@@Funboihahaha fair enough haha
IMO another reason why soccer failed in America was the lack of culture... First Stanley Cup was won in 1893, MLB has been around since the 1900s, NBA since 1950s, NFL's first superbowl was 1960s...and then MLS was born in 1995 but didn't start until 1996. You walk down the street of NYC, you see Mets and Yankees hats on corners of every street because those teams have been around for so long that people can say their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were fans of said teams. The same can rarely be said with MLS.
Luckily there are lots of teams now who have been around long enough where people can say their parents took them to games as a kid, but we still lack the traditions like hosting viewing parties for MLS Cup final. Although MLS came 40 years after the first Superbowl ever, it's extremely impressive to see how much the league has grown in such a short amount of time!
BANGER OF A VIDEO!
Idk but I think because they have so many different sports
I would have loved it more if you gave us the comparable prices adjusting inflation. But i still enjoyed it ❤
Im pretty happy with the current state of football here. 10 years ago no one cared for it. Now you see kids in kits and people watching matches in bars it makes me so happy to see it continue to grow
sports arent watched for the love of the game in america, its the show that they're after!
America has the appetite for genuine love for sports like football. Their fans can have passionate and creative cultures.
They made the same mistake again with Messi tbh… Hes a massive piece of the pie and since those initial months following his signing for Miami, the league has pretty much gone back to the low viewership and boring games it was having before Messi… It made sense with Beckham and Zlatan because at least those guys had brass and marketable personalities that made them fun to follow but Messi has none of that. Its hard to imagine the average American who is more into College / NFL football, the NBA, or the MLB to care about a league where the best player is someone who is a quiet person and refuses to even learn English… imo that $150 million salary and whatever percentages of the league and its revenue he was given would’ve been much better suited being invested into un-fucking the atrocious youth development system that had plagued American soccer since the sport first became popular here when Pele came through.
Another issue is that Apple TV was charging for ridiculous prices for MLS season pass, so like me I imagine people were turned off by that. The football is terrible as well, nobody wants to watch a game where the defense makes stupid errors daily
Hey regarding the penalty shootout instead of a draw, wasn’t this a thing in Yugoslavian league? Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure I heard that
1:18 i noticed that Lebron reference 😂
@Football Iconic Good video as always.
PLEASE I would like you to do a video on THE SORRY STATE OF GHANA FOOTBALL. I will even help you with it to expose the rot for free with not shout-out or anything. Our football is on a Cataclysmic demise and no one wants to do anything about it from clueless FA to the bodies around it. Thanks 👍
Pay to play obv the big one. But from a viewership standpoint, I feel like we could see growth on the horizon more and more. Having the game with no ad breaks in a world where every other sport keeps cramming tv timeouts for ads in, I think will make it more attractive of a product to the next generation of sports fans
I saw ur video on american football few weeks back i hope this ones not a re-upload
its a remake of a video from a few years ago
The older one was really bad with terrible audio. It’s not exactly a remake. It’s a longer, version with more detail and better edits
@@FootballIconic it do be an update
@@FootballIconic messi to the mix
@@FootballIconic btw u edit really very good with superb storytelling m learning so much from u
That offside rule and points changes sound like cancer. What were they thinking
They though they knew what Americans wanted
Horrendous, I agree. Typical titans-of-industry types who thought they knew better while having little to no understanding of the game they thought they'd "improve ". 😮
The Brazilian government changed the law to prevent any attempt by Pelé to leave the country. All of Santos' friendlies had to be previously approved by the government, and any departure of Pelé from the country had to be announced in advance.
The dictatorship depended on his image to try to keep people under control, he never had the option to leave.
To be fair to the US, they're still pretty good compared to many countries that primarily focuses on football. My country still haven't breached the top 100 since the 2000-s. The US should be proud to be dominant in many sports.
I feel like this is exactly what’s happening w/ Messi in the U.S. currently. Hopefully the U.S. can capitalize on it this time around
Real ones know its a re-upload
The last year of the NASL was coincidentally the same as the 1984 LA Olympics. The turnout to the football games was very big which inspired FIFA at the time that America might be ready to host the World Cup. So they approached the USSF and USA was awarded the 94 World Cup which became the new springboard to restart the beautiful game and the rest is history. It seems this time, football will be part of American culture for good which has moved from a fringe fad to slowly becoming part of mainstream culture.
My man what an intro🤧
Seeing my Philadelphia Eagles in a Football Iconic video was not something I ever expected.
Go birds 🦅🦅🦅
Awesome video awesome audio but drop the chelsea video bro cummon
0:27 CHATTANOOGA MENTIONED 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Upon seeing the title, and after growing up in america and experiencing how people talk about soccer vs american football, and all the BS, my biggest fear was that this video would center Pele. Have a good day
IS THAT A USA REFERENCE?!?!?!? RAHHHHHHHHHHHHH 🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅
I have consumed all the information from this video
Soccer/Football in America is a Mixed Bag. Its Popular in a few places. In a lot of places its not. Money has become an issue when it come to whether or not your Kid could play Yourh Soccer. We definitely missed out on several players.
its priorities. The best young US athletes dont want to play "Soccer" they want to play in the NBA NFL NHL MLB and now UFC. If they changed the perception of the sport, get the best kids on board and spend the sums they do on youth training in those other sports theyd be a force. Problem is their footballers are the guys not good enough to make it in a sport the country actually cares about, and a few average players whos dream was always football. they only lack the talent because the talent is bust doing other stuff. I'm not American.
soccer is a sport where you need skill to be the best. just being big and fast is not enough to win.
@@jikan-o6x get them as kids to focus on playing football instead of the other sports they will learn skill, similar to how European teams train youth players. athletes are adaptable if you get them early enough, im not saying take a dude from nfl put him in shorts and he scores a hattrick.
Putin: stop the war football iconic just dropped a video
Great vid
Theres no punishment for failing in the MLS which IMO is a huge negative as the only way to move into the MLS is to pay. Its an elitest form of football, something we have all been rebelling against as fans
The anwser to the title is obvious, still i proceed to watch
Soceer
Joking, im not a twat
A better question would be why modern American, Russian, Indian and Chinese "native" popular sports and leisure activities have never been popular anywhere else in the world.
The take that "if only the US were interested in Football they'd absolutely dominate the sport" is so ridiculous and so very arrogant in a very American way. There is no way that the US would win a world cup, even if they were as crazy about the beautiful game as Brazil is.
How Good was America, Really. - FI decades from now 🙌
Tinashe, you missed one key factor in your analysis which also explains why football never took off in my country, Australia. A more-violent sport was already ubiquitous, and men, as we know, are always trying to prove their masculinity above most else, leading to football being perennially derided as un-masculine.
Yeah, Sergio Ramos, Pepe and other stomp and go players were definitely pansies!
@@charlesray9674 sergio ramos and pepe would get snapped in half by nfl or rugby players lol
@@jikan-o6x Yeah, but those nfl players would be gassed and fall over themselves if the tried playing soccer.
Anyways, the point was made that soccer players weren't physical.
Beckham and Henry had quite an impact, but yeah Pele and Messi trump all, but the former 2 were no slouches in boosting interest.
Now you have to do one for Australia and the A-League
The Shopee and David So gif had me
Cause we have other sports that pay wayyyyy more money than football does. The sporting infrastructure is heavily weighted towards the "major sports"