What is American soccer culture? Ask that question to 100 people and you may very well receive 100 different responses. People’s perception of American soccer culture depends entirely on where they are coming from. Soccer moms, for instance, have very different perceptions of soccer culture in this country than do immigrants recently arrived here. Yet despite the obvious level of diversity among Americans involved with the sport, many observers ignore this variety and attempt to make proclamations about a single monolithic entity called “American soccer culture.”

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A lot happened in the time I was gone, including the rise of Twitter. In an effort to keep up with the times, I have established a Culture of Soccer twitter account. I think I’ll mostly use it to post articles of interest to me, but am open to suggestions about how to use this new-fangled tool. Hope you enjoy!

I did a piece for Tom Dunmore’s excellent blog Pitch Invasion today about how I became the obsessed soccer fan that I am. Kudos to anyone who can name a player for the Dayton Dynamo!

Any list of soccer meccas in the United States would have to include Nevada Smith’s. The bar, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, has bringing in the soccer faithful of New York since 1994. Today, on any given weekend day, the bar shows games from morning till night. Matches from England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United States and beyond (catering to a group of supporters of SK Brann, Nevada Smith’s even shows Norwegian league) fill the bar’s many televisions spread over two floors. Weekends are “a constant coming and going of people,” Nevada Smith’s owner Jack Keane told me recently. “On a busy Saturday, there’s no doubt that we have between 2000 and 3000 fans that come through the doors.”

Fans at Nevada Smith’s (photo: New York Daily News)

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When I travel abroad, people often tell me that the United States is good at soccer only because they import foreigners to play for the national team. While this strategy was key in our development as a soccer nation, it is far, far less common today. The 1990s saw the US scour European leagues for players with American connections, coming up with gems such as Ernie Stewart and Thomas Dooley (both of whom had American servicemen fathers) and duds such as David Wagner and David Regis (the latter was a Frenchman whose late call-up into the 1998 World Cup squad led to great friction within the team and was a large part of the team’s horrible showing in that tournament). But since the turn of the century, the US has invested a tremendous amount of money into youth development, and nearly all of its players have been born in this country. Despite this, the image of the US as a sub-par team that must import foreigners to achieve success has lingered. Yet ironically, in recent years the US has helped to develop several players who have gone on to play for other countries internationally.

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