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Garrett Bingham
Joseph Stadolnik
Soccer and Global Culture
22 November 2015
From Sidelines to Center Field: Soccers Journey through Twentieth-Century America
I can foresee that the World Cup [in America in 1994] will meet the conditions
established by the Winter Olympics for pointlessness and trivia enhancement. It is well
known in the media that the Winter Olympics are when you go to incredible
inconvenience to cover a local competitor in an event you wouldnt normally cross the
street to see. Biathlon. Luge. Soccer. Three of a kind. (Cleveland Plain Dealer qtd. in
Wangerin 244)
Such is the sentiment by those unfamiliar with soccers history in America. In a country where
minimal media coverage and longstanding stereotypes have skewed public perception of the
game, many have portrayed it as dull, uninteresting, and unpopular. In reality, the tale of
soccers transition from a subcultural art practiced by ethnic minorities to a mass cultural
phenomenon beloved not just by men but also by women and youth across the country is both
rich and informative. It reveals the dynamic between superior and subordinate groups during
this time period, displays differences between the American and global version of the sport, and
most importantly, challenges the commonly held belief that soccer is not American.
Before we explore the shift in American soccer from subcultural to mass cultural, some
definitions and historical context is necessary. Many attribute soccers first appearance in
America to games played between Ivy League universities in the late nineteenth century, though
the rules were often changed game to game and at times resembled those of gridiron football

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(Wangerin 21). Soccer at this time was a marginal sport at best, and it wasnt until the 1920s
with the formation of the American Soccer League (ASL) that soccer gained any real
significance in the eyes of the American public (Wangerin 45). Its life was short lived however
and the ASL folded in the early 30s with the onset of the Great Depression coupled with a wave
of increased isolationism and xenophobia (Wangerin 76-77; Trouille 800). In a country where
soccer was thought of as a foreign sport, it struggled to survive. Soccer received little to no
media coverage during this time, and as a result its existence has been neglected by historians; in
reality soccer saw booming successes among immigrant and ethnic groups (Trouille 801). It is
with these ethnic teams that soccers subcultural phase begins.
Hebdige called subculture the expressive forms and rituals of those subordinate groups
(2). He notes that these groups are dismissed, denounced and canonized (Hebdige 2). For
Hebdige, subcultures were groups who felt oppressed and ignored by society, and in reaction
chose to distinguish themselves from society through their behavior, or as he likes to call it,
style (2).
Style in subculture is, then, pregnant with significance. Its transformations go against
nature, interrupting the process of normalization. As such, they are gestures,
movements towards a speech which offends the silent majority, which challenges the
principle of unity and cohesion, which contradicts the myth of consensus. Our task
becomesto discern the hidden messages inscribed in code on the glossy surfaces of
style, to trace them out as maps of meaning which obscurely re-present the very
contradictions they are designed to resolve or conceal. (Hebdige 18)
The importance of Hebdiges description of style is that he clarifies that subcultural groups do
not merely withdraw in response to oppression. They engage in style. Style is gestures and

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movements. It offends, challenges, and contradicts. What Hebdige is saying when he
calls style a form of Refusal is that style is an active rebuttal, an explicitly conscious decision
to respond to repression from society (2). What then, are the maps of meaning hidden within
something as simple as a soccer ball, a pair of cleats, or a grass stain from a well-timed tackle?
By viewing ethnic minorities in early twentieth-century America as a subculture and soccer as
their style, we see that soccer served as a basis upon which ethnic minorities formed a
collective identity which simultaneously connected them to their home countries and
distinguished them from the rest of American society.
Whether they faced active discrimination or merely found it difficult to adjust to life in
the States, many immigrants in early twentieth-century America did not feel welcome in their
new home. As Ed Murphy recalled: I hated Chicago when I first came over. I was terribly
homesickGetting into soccer here was the best thing that ever happened to me (Trouille 805).
For him, soccer functioned as a cultural bridge between America and his native country,
allowing him to feel welcome in a foreign environment (Scott 835). Trouille found that
Americans often viewed soccer as an expression of cultural Otherness, and consequently many
immigrant groups readily adopted soccer as a way to resist the homogenizing pressures of
American society (806). This shows that the relegation of soccer to a subcultural practice was
propagated both by ordinary citizens who saw the practice as un-American, and by the ethnic
minorities who readily adopted the sport as a means to a self-imposed exile (Hebdige 2).
Ethnic minority groups used soccer to differentiate themselves from the rest of society, but
soccer also served as a catalyst for the formation of a strong ethnic identity. Playing on soccer
teams and attending matches was a way to feel pride in, and kinship with, ones ethnic group.
Success on the soccer field served to reinforce the collective and bounded identity of players and

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spectators alike (Trouille 803-804). Conversely, tensions arose if there were ever multiple
teams holding claim to the same ethnic identity. Competition to be the dominant team within a
given ethnic group was intense enough to nearly spark a riot during a mid-1970s indoor game
between two Greek clubs (Trouille 806). This case demonstrates the extent to which soccer
became a way for clubs to contradict the myth of consensus (Hebdige 18). In this example and
in scenarios like it, associations with clubs became so strong that they superseded the importance
of the ethnic identity upon which the team was founded, and these clubs functioned as
subcultures within a subculture.
Hebdige notes that subculture invokes the larger and no less difficult concept culture
(4). In order to differentiate between subculture and culture, I will call the latter mass culture
to refer to practices that are widely accepted or practiced by a significant portion of society; these
activities reflect the values and identities of those whom engage in them. As the 1900s
progressed, salaries increased, and many athletes played for whichever team paid them the most,
regardless of ethnic identity (Trouille 805). As players left to play where the money was, the
ethnic identity sported by many clubs became less legitimate and instead increasingly symbolic.
In Trouilles case study of early twentieth-century Chicago, he noted that although few
individuals of German descent play for Schwaben today, the club is still commonly viewed as
German (Trouille 814). This divergence from a team sponsoring ones ethnic identity
represented a step against subcultural soccer, and served as foreshadowing for the mass cultural
form soccer would eventually take.
Despite the evidence to the contrary, many researchers still contend that soccer in the
United States has yet to reach mass cultural status. Markovits and Hellerman pose the question:
will soccer finally become ingrained in Americas main culture and not remain the subculture it

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continues to be? (Offside, 266). They quote an unnamed American soccer expert who calls
American soccer a fad and questions how many U.S. youth, high school or college coaches
could name a real world eleven and the clubs they play for (qtd. in Markovits, Offside 267).
Their argument that soccer does not exist on any meaningful scale in the United States stems
from soccers lack of television success (qtd. in Andrews 2). The problem with these sentiments
is that they equate mass culture with mass media. Superstar familiarity and television coverage
do not define mass culture and cannot encompass a countrys values. In truth, it is easier to
argue that playing soccer itself is more authentic and intimate than watching the sport from a
living room couch. Markovits and Hellerman are mistaken; following the rise of the North
American Soccer League (NASL) in 1968, soccer became mass cultural. Soccer was and is an
American sport.
Why didnt soccer remain subcultural? Part of the reason was the sheer number of new
soccer fans. Donnelly and Young argue that the process of socialization into a sport subculture is
a deliberate act of identity construction (Donnelly 223). They contend that this progression
undergoes four distinct steps, beginning with having initial preconceptions about a sport
subculture and later actually becoming a member and adopting the practices of the group. This
process concludes with the Acceptance / Ostracism stage, which involves the confirmation of
that identity by established members of the subculture (Donnelly 225-226). This translates to
existing soccer fans policing the behaviors of emerging fans (ensuring correct terminology,
mannerisms, sufficient knowledge, etc.) and either accepting or ostracizing them based on their
behavior. In countries around the world where soccer is the dominant, hegemonic sport, this
happens frequently, and the existing fan culture crowds out any major variations. But in the
United States, in the latter half of the twentieth century, this established member group was

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miniscule, and as such could not fulfill the Acceptance / Ostracism requirement given such a
huge influx of fans. The unfiltered growth of soccer in the United States resulted in a fan culture
that no longer qualified as subcultural, and ensured that a distinctly American flavor of the game
was engendered. As a result, there are marked differences between the United States and the rest
of the world, both in the way the professional game is played and in the culture of its fans. This
alone provides significant evidence for the mass cultural form soccer has taken.
Hoping to appeal to more fans, the NASL altered some of its rules in an attempt to make
the game more American. To generate drama, they introduced a clock that counted down
instead of up. The league moved the offsides line from midfield to 35 yards away from goal to
increase scoring and mandated a penalty shoot-out to ensure a winner if a match ended even
(Rheenen 783). These rule alterations dont just distinguish the soccer in the United States from
the rest of the world, they underscore the mass cultural turn soccer had taken following the start
of the NASL. Buzzer beater tension, high scoring, and means to ensure a winner are present in
each of the dominant American sports (football, baseball, basketball, and hockey), and the
NASLs divergence from regulation FIFA rules to instead appeal to the multitudes shows just
how mass cultural soccer was becoming. In short, what I am arguing is that these deviations
from what the rest of the world knows as soccer, whether they be rule changes or otherwise, are
what give soccer in America its mass cultural status, because they are what make the game
genuinely American.
The differences between American soccer and foreign soccer do not end with
discrepancies in the rules of the game. The exodus of soccer from the cities to the suburbs is yet
another instance of this. As Andrews notes, the suburban lifestyle was centered on a
consumerist ethos fulfilled by mass consumption and the upkeep of ones pristine dream

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home (Andrews 41). For many, making purchase after purchase was the way to demonstrate
status and identity; people paradoxically looked to their own neighborhoods for their spending
cues yet simultaneously tried to assert themselves as distinct from their neighbors through their
contrasting degrees of affluence (Andrews 40, 43). Steinbrecher stamped the suburban
lifestyle as mom and dad, two kids, two lawn chairs, Saturday afternoon with the family dog,
watching the kids play, $40,000 income, mini van (qtd. in Andrews 32). He characterizes one
suburban family as typical of all and uses exact numbers (two kids, two lawn chairs) to
communicate the homogeneity of the American suburbs during the twentieth century. Afraid of
falling behind their peers, yet struggling to distinguish themselves in a blanket of white picket
fences, many suburban homeowners felt feelings of perpetual dissatisfaction and status anxiety
(Andrews 44). As we will see, soccer both displayed this identity crisis and functioned as a tool
with which people tried to overcome it.
The use of soccer to distinguish ones self from his or her peers is on the whole an
American phenomenon. In countries for which soccer is the dominant sport, kids play the game
on their own in the streets, playgrounds and sandlots. The United States, on the other hand, has
focused on developing elite soccer for its kids, as is evidenced by the formation of leagues
like the Super Y-League and US Club Soccer (Markovits, Womens 17). This depiction of
soccer outside the U.S. triggers images of childlike innocence and navet, yet the description of
soccer within the U.S. makes it look cutthroat and grueling, and a perfect fit for the competitive
suburban lifestyle. However, as Markovits and Hellerman note, soccer was originally selected
by parents as a sport for their kids because it was nonconfrontational, non-violent [and]noncompetitive (Womens 17). This may appear contradictory, but I would argue that it helps us
to understand that the suburbanization of soccer triggered a shift in the identities expressed

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through the sport from those of the children to that of the parents. Suburban homeowners have
utilized youth soccer as yet another means by which they can contrast themselves from their
neighborsthey are expressing their identity through their children. Soccer became such an
integral part of the suburban lifestyle that it prompted Andrews to claim that soccer enunciates
the dominant rhythms and regimes of suburban existence (31). But the impacts of suburban
soccer dont stop here. The skyrocketing youth participation rates associated with this time
period also served as a springboard for the success of womens soccer.
With more women and girls playing soccer in the United States than the sum total of the
fourteen nations ranking behind it, the success of U.S. womens soccer has become something of
an anomaly (Grainey xxvi). Part of the reason is political: the passage of Title IX in the United
States in 1972 mandated gender equity in athletic opportunities for colleges receiving federal
funds (Grainey 3). Womens soccer became a popular sport for a college to sponsor, because it
afforded them the ability to include at least 20 female student-athletes on a team with minimal
equipment expenses (Markovits, Womens 20). This is in stark contrast to other countries in
the 60s and 70s where womens soccer was banned: by national law in Brazil and by the German
Football Association in Germany (Grainey xxvi). The political climate was ripe, and equally
important, so was the social mood of the country. Julie Foudy characterized the differences
between the United States and the rest of the world this way: everyone plays soccer here [in the
United States]. Girls are encouraged. But you travel abroad, and the game is considered a mans
world in so many cultures. A girl is considered a freak if she plays (qtd. in Markovits,
Womens 21). This shows that the United States at this time had already been able to
transcend the common sense understanding of [a]sport ethic [that] privileges men over
women (Rheenen 781). Knoppers and Anthonissen, in a case study involving the United States

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and the Netherlands found that the experiences of womens national soccer teams differed
primarily because in the U.S. mens soccer is a minor sport whereas in the Netherlands, mens
soccer dominates (352). Dutch women have had their field time curtailed, seen age restrictions
imposed, and played without pay, all because the existing inequalities between men and
womens soccer are seen as common sense (Knoppers 355, 359). In addition to providing an
example for how United States soccer is unique, this comparison between United States soccer
and Dutch soccer (Knoppers and Anthonissen note that similarities exist in other European
countries as well) shows that the subcultural beginnings soccer underwent in America were a
prerequisite for its unique form today (Knoppers 364). In countries in which soccer was
hegemonic, the current soccer culture crowded out any variations. Yet in the United States,
where soccer was a marginal sport, there was plenty of room for womens soccer to thrive.
The perception of women by the general public has changed substantially over time, and
womens soccer provides an excellent avenue through which to view this change. In the early
nineteenth century, womens participation in collegiate athletic events was restricted to
egalitarian participation for the sake of physical fitness. Yet by the late 1960s, the National
Association for Girls and Women in Sport changed its stance on women and sports, deciding to
promote competitive varsity programs for women, suggesting that Americans were gradually
becoming more accepting of the idea of an athletic female (Markovits, Womens 19). Slowly
shedding the stigma that female athletes are somehow unwomanly, the success of the U.S.
womens team helped to further the idea that athleticism and femininity were not mutually
exclusive (Markovits, Womens 22). This doesnt merely reflect a change in attitude, in this
case it appears that womens soccer was the driving force behind the new perspective on women.
Many of the star players on the U.S. womens national team now serve as role models for

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American girls nationwide, demonstrating that on top of providing a channel through which the
identity and values of women can be displayed in the American sports world, womens soccer is
playing an active role in the formation of the values of young girls across the country.
Additionally, womens soccer has been used to pursue feminist goals. In 2000, the U.S. womens
national team went on strike, demanding that they be paid the same as the mens team (Knoppers
359). This case in particular is special, because it shows that womens soccer reflects the values
in this instance equity of payof women from coast to coast, not just those involved with the
sport.
Soccers transition through twentieth-century America from subcultural to mass cultural
isnt merely about an ever-growing fan base. It is about the creation of an American sport whose
intricacies rely on marginal beginnings. Yet whether the differences between American soccer
and global soccer are found in rule changes, suburbanized soccer, or the expression of ethnic or
female identity, their merit isnt solely in distinguishing the United States from the rest of the
world. Rather, soccers presence in American sports ensures that on the whole American sports
reflect the identities and values of a broader range of society. Soccer may not fit the bill of a
traditional American sport that idolizes the athletic male, but that doesnt make it any less
American.
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Works Cited
Andrews, David L. "Contextualizing Suburban Soccer: Consumer Culture, Lifestyle
Differentiation and Suburban America." Culture, Sport, Society 2.3 (1999): 31-53. Web.
02 Nov. 2015.
Donnelly, Peter, and Kevin Young. "The Construction and Confirmation of Identity in Sport
Subcultures." Sociology of Sport Journal 5.3 (1988): 223-40. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Grainey, Timothy F. Beyond Bend It like Beckham: The Global Phenomenon of Women's Soccer.
Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2012. Print.
Hebdige, Dick. Subculture, the Meaning of Style. London: Methuen, 1979. Print.
Knoppers, Annelies, and Anton Anthonissen. "Women's Soccer in the United States and the
Netherlands: Differences and Similarities in Regimes of Inequalities." Sociology of Sport
Journal 20.4 (2003): 351-70. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Markovits, Andrei S., and Steven L. Hellerman. Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001. Print.
Markovits, Andrei S., and Steven L. Hellerman. "Women's Soccer in the United States: Yet
Another American Exceptionalism." Soccer & Society 4.2 (2003): 14-29. Web. 2 Nov.
2015.
Rheenen, Derek Van. "The Promise of Soccer in America: The Open Play of Ethnic
Subcultures." Soccer & Society 10.6 (2009): 781-94. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
Scott, Ian. "From NASL to MLS: Transnational Culture, Exceptionalism and Britain's Part in
American Soccer's Coming of Age." The Journal of Popular Culture 44.4 (2011): 831-53.
Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

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Trouille, David. "Association Football to Ftbol: Ethnic Succession and the History of Chicago
area Soccer, 18901920." Soccer & Society 10.6 (2009): 795-822. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.
Wangerin, David. Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game.
Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2008. Print.