1620
In the original Jamestown settlement, Native Americans played a game called pasuckuakohowog, with goals one mile apart and as many as 1,000 people participating at a time.
1820
A form of soccer was played among the Northeastern universities and colleges of Harvard, Princeton, Amherst and Brown.
1830
The modern form of soccer originated among working-class communities and was seen as a way of keeping young and energetic kids out of trouble at home and in school.
1848
In England, the first Cambridge Rules were drawn up.
1862
The Oneida Football Club was formed in Boston, the first soccer club anywhere outside of England.
1883
The four British associations agreed on a uniform code and formed the International Football Association Board.
1885
The first international match was played between teams (U.S. vs. Canada) outside of Great Britain.
1888
The penalty kick was introduced.
1904
The Olympic Games of 1904 in St. Louis included soccer as an official Olympic sport where club teams competed under the national team banner.
Delegates from France, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland established FIFA (The Federation Internationale de Football Association) at a meeting in Paris.
1914
The United States Football Association (USFA) was granted full membership in FIFA at the annual congress at Oslo.
1916
The first United States Football Association (USFA) Men's National Team traveled to Norway and Sweden; the Americans played six matches, finishing 3-1-2.
1920
The Dick-Kerr's Ladies Professional Team (England's unofficial team) spurred interest in the sport.
1921
The American Soccer League (ASL) was born when franchises were granted to Fall River (MA), Philadelphia, Jersey City Celtics, Todd Shipyard of Brooklyn, New York FC, Falcons FC of Holyoke (MA), and JP Coats of Paw-tucket (RI).
1926
The Hakoah team from Israel played before 46,000 fans at the Polo Grounds against an ASL select team.
1930
The U.S. was one of 13 nations to compete in the first FIFA World Cup competition in Montevideo, Uruguay.
1932
At the 10th Olympic Games in Los Angeles, soccer was eliminated due to a controversy between FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the definition of an amateur athlete.
1933
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the governing body of college athletics in the United States, released an official rulebook covering all intercollegiate soccer in the U.S.
1950
Joe Gaetjens’ goal gave the USA the win over England, 1-0, at the World Cup in Brazil; it was called the biggest upset ever in international soccer.
The first college bowl game was played in St. Louis; Penn State tied the University of San Francisco 2-2.
The Philadelphia Old-Timers Association organized the National Soccer Hall of Fame with 15 inaugural inductees.
1967
Two new major professional leagues in the U.S. began which became the North American Soccer League (NASL).
The Hermann Trophy award for the college player of the year was initiated with. Dov Markus of Long Island University as the first recipient.
1975
The New York Cosmos of the NASL signed Pelé for a reported $4.5 million.
1977
The NASL signed a seven-game contract for national television.
1978
The New York Cosmos became the first NASL team to break one million in home and away attendance.
The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) started with six franchises: Cincinnati Kids, Cleveland Force, Houston Summit, New York Arrows, Philadelphia Fever and Pittsburgh Spirit.
1981
The United States Under-20 National Team competed in its first World Youth Championship in Australia; the U.S. team lost to Uruguay 3-0, tied Qatar 1-1, and lost to Poland 4-0.
1982
The National Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum opened in the Wilber Mansion, Oneonta, New York.
1985
The first U.S. Women's National Team competed internationally in Italy.
1988
The United States was awarded the 1994 World Cup during the FIFA Congress in Zurich.
1989
For the first time since 1950, the U.S. Men's National Team qualified for the 1990 World Cup after a 1-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago.
1990
The U.S. Men's National Team competed in the World Cup in Italy for the first time in 40 years.
The U.S. Women's National Team qualified for the world championship.
The WSL and the ASL merged to form the American Professional Soccer League.
1991
The U.S. Men's National Team won its first-ever regional championship.
The U.S. Women's National Team won the first-ever FIFA Women's World Championship in China after beating Norway 2-1 in the final.
The United States Under-23 team won the gold medal at the Pan Am Games in Cuba.
1992
The U.S. Men's National Team won the inaugural U.S. Cup.
The Major Indoor Soccer League folded after 15 years in existence.
The U.S. Futsal Team won the silver medal at the FIFA World Championship in Hong Kong.
1994
The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, attracting over 3.5 million in attendance, a World Cup record.
The Women's National Team won the Chiquita Cup, an international tournament with four national teams of Germany, China, Norway and the United States.
1995
The U.S. Men's National Team won the U.S. Cup, defeating Nigeria, tying Colombia and outplaying Mexico to a 4-0 victory.
1996
FIFA awarded the 1999 Women's World Cup to the United States.
The U.S. Women's National Team won the first-ever gold medal in the Olympic Games in Atlanta, defeating China 2-1 in the championship game.
Major League Soccer was launched, providing the United States with its first Division I outdoor pro league since the North American Soccer League folded in 1985.
“Preface,” A Parent's Guide to Coaching Soccer, Jack McCarthy, 1990:
“Hey, coach, I can't make baseball practice tomorrow because I have a soccer game, okay?”
I looked down at the robust, freckle-faced kid, and remember wondering what this red-blooded American boy saw in soccer.
It was 1978, not so long ago. My attitude reflected the ignorance of an entire generation of American parents. We grew up in a culture where football was the number one game. I had no idea what soccer was really about. I knew it was played all over Europe, and I figured Europe would come to our way of thinking sooner or later. It was a dark age here for soccer, and I was a dinosaur.
A few years later, my daughter developed an interest in playing sports. She tried a year of baseball, but never really got into it. Our town had just started a soccer team for girls a bit older than my daughter. I called the president of the local soccer club and asked why there was no team for younger girls. He said, “There is no coach.” I answered, “You have a coach now; what do I do?” He said, “Get on the phone and put together a team.” A month later we were on the field.
Fortunately for me, none of the girls had ever played soccer. They never knew how little I knew and neither did their parents. I had coached and played other sports before, so I could fake it, but I really knew nothing. Little did I know that I was on the threshold of my most rewarding coaching experience, and that I was about to become part of one of the greatest games in the world. The soccer explosion of the 1980s is a clear testimony to its growing popularity.
I figured the first step was to get a book on soccer. As I stated in my earlier book, A Parent's Guide to Coaching Baseball, there were plenty of baseball books, but none that really helped the novice. Well, what I found when looking for something on soccer was even worse. I couldn't find any books at all.
Fortunately, there were coaching clinics available throughout our state soccer organization, and I learned the fundamentals. There just wasn't anything that really brought the concept of soccer home to me, or that clearly showed me how to develop a kid's skills. I felt very much alone. Most coaching materials assume the reader has played the game. But, like most American parents, I had not. . . .
How did my girls do? We lost our first game 17-0 against a team that had been together for three years. So I set our goals realistically. The next game we decided to keep the other team below 10 goals, and we succeeded. Then our goal was to score, and we succeeded. Finally, our goal was to win a game, and we were successful in that, also. Two years later the girls went undefeated, and then became the first-ever girls’ varsity team at Hillsboro High school in New Jersey. Then I dropped out to coach my younger son in soccer for a few years. During my years coaching soccer, I played the game myself on weekends, pickup games for coaches and parents at our high school field. It is hard to learn the sport as an adult, but the skills are slowly coming.
The Girls of Summer, The U.S. Women's Soccer Team and How It Changed the World, Jere Longman:
Like representative government, soccer has been imported from England and democratized in the United States. It has become the great social and athletic equalizer in suburban America. From kindergarten, girls are placed on an equal footing with boys. In the fall, weekend soccer games are as prevalent in suburbia as yard sales. Girls have their own leagues, or they play with boys, and they suffer from no tradition that says women will grow professionally to be less successful than men. . . .
Soccer has become the fastest growing sport in the country in both high school and college. From 1981 through 1999, the number of women's collegiate soccer teams grew from 77 to 818, propelled by Title IX. There are now 93 more women's teams than men's teams at the university level. Soccer is serious enough now as a sport that coaches are fired for poor performance, the big football schools are showing increased interest, and a few of the top women's collegiate programs now use private planes for recruiting. Chris Petrucelli, who won a national championship for Notre Dame, was lured to Texas in early 1999 by a contract worth $180,000 annually and by a $28 million soccer and track facility.
On the high school level, there were 257,586 girls registered to play soccer in 1998-1999, compared with 11,534 in 1976-77. Of the 18 million registered soccer players the United States, 7.5 million, or 40 percent, were girls and women, according to the Soccer Industry Council of America.