The U.S. Soccer program began in 1913 as the United States Football Association and it has been known by 3 different names. From 1913-1944 it was known as the U.S. Football Association, from 1945-1973 as the U.S. Soccer Football Association, and from 1974 to the present as the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The US Soccer Federations Mission Statement is simple: to make soccer, in all its forms, a preeminent sport in the United States and to continue the development of soccer at all recreational and competitive levels.
The U.S. National team has had a long string of success in its history. From its inception the team has qualified for 19 consecutive FIFA outdoor world championships before the Under-23 national team missed out on the Olympics in 2004. Despite this success they have had very little success in the World Cup. In 1989 the Mens team hadn't played in a World Cup in 40 years and the Womens team was only 4 years old. From these early, rough, beginnings the team and US Soccer have seen a lot of overall growth. Currently the men's team is currently ranked 16th in the world, 1st in the CONCACAF region, and has appeared in the last 5 World Cup competitions.
The History of US Soccer has seen few wins on the National Stage, but there are a few that stand out to me:
In 1950, the United State defeated England 1-0 in what is regarded as one of the greatest upsets in the history of soccer. This video is in German, but it is the only one I could find. (Enjoy it Kalle!!)
The next historic event in US Soccer would be the surprise run to the 2002 World Cup Quarterfinals.
I think that this next video really shows just how far the US has come in the eyes of the world. The German powerhouse was thoroughly outplayed. The US showed that they belonged on the national stage.
In recent years, the US has continued to show that they can not only compete with the elite teams of the world, but beat the elite teams of the world. In 2009, the United States defeated Spain, the #1 team of the world, in the Confederations Cup in South Africa.
America has come a long way from its small beginnings, but big wins on even bigger stages have brought consistent success to American soccer
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It's exciting to see USA soccer gain respect and it will be interesting to see how they do in the world cup. I think a bad tournament will do a lot of damage, but a good one with making it a couple rounds in will do a lot to help it to continue to rise. They need a marquee victory again, England would be good but another Spain or Italy or Argentina or Brazil or one of those kind of wins.
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