A spirited and detailed account of the first 20 years of Major League Soccer, the visionaries who believed Americans would finally embrace soccer, and the fans who fulfilled that vision.
In 1988, FIFA decreed that the 1994 World Cup would be played in the United States - with the condition that the U.S. would start a new professional league. The North American Soccer League had failed just four years prior, and the prospects of launching a new league for Americans, who didn't share the rest of the world's love for soccer, were both exciting and daunting.
The United States of Soccer is the engaging history of MLS's bootstrap origins prior to its 1996 launch, its near-demise in the early 2000s, its surprising resilience and growth in the following years, and its continued rise in respectability and recognition from soccer fans around the world.
The book also explores the origin of a number of MLS's best-known supporters groups - the superfans...