What does the future hold for U.S. soccer?
The history of American soccer includes a number of watershed moments or dates.
There is 1990, when the United States qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 40 years. And 1994, when it hosted the tournament for the first time and spawned the arrival of Major League Soccer two years later.
The next one on the horizon figures to be 2026, when the World Cup comes back to American soil. But what about 2018?
Hosting a World Cup can be counted on to provide a once-in-a-generation bump in popularity. But a lot more might be learned from this summer.
The biggest lesson came from the U.S. missing out on qualifying and providing a timely reminder that soccer fandom in this country is many things – none of them dependent on a national team reaching the World Cup.
The way soccer is consumed in the U.S. is more of an international deal than ever. MLS has made great strides, but there are still vast numbers of young and not-so-young Americans who crave the thrill of seeing the true elite, from the biggest and best European clubs.
Bouncing immediately off the World Cup is a part of the American soccer puzzle that doesn’t fit neatly into a box but has nevertheless become a key part of the calendar. The International Champions Cup is the latest and arguably the biggest summer preseason tournament to come to these shores and is stacked with virtually every major European club team you can think of.
There was a time when preseason tours featuring big European clubs had dismal reputations. The teams were only coming for sunshine and relaxation, so went the narrative. The squads featured would barely reflect what lineup would actually take the field when the season began back home.
No longer. No one is pretending that the ICC is an event on the scale of the Champions League and it doesn’t aspire to be. But the story has shifted.
It is not the only element of American soccer to deal with misconception. MLS gets tagged with the stereotype that it is a haven for washed-up European players in search of one last easy payday. That was once the case, and stars such as Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have still come at 32 and 36, but more central of the league’s health is a crop of younger performers from both Europe and South America who have greatly increased the overall quality.
As for the ICC, the change came about when leading European coaches – one of them in particular – started making preseason a priority.
“Jose Mourinho changed things,” Charlie Stillitano, chairman of ICC organizer Relevent Sports told USA TODAY Sports. “He worked out that if you make a flying start in the league back home, it gives you a great chance of holding on and winning it. And the best way to start strongly in the league is to have had a great preseason, with games against high-quality teams.”
Mourinho’s Manchester United is here, and others have followed. Some teams still like it the old way. Everton of the English Premier League thrashed a semi-pro Austrian side 22-0 last week. United will take on EPL rival Liverpool, Italian giant AC Milan and Champions League winner Real Madrid.
The games promise to be competitive in both spirit and execution, and generally feature strong squads with some promising emerging players mixed in.
It contributes to making watching soccer a yearround experience. NFL fans don’t have that, facing a long and tortuous wait between the Super Bowl and the start of each new season.
The NBA also has a lengthy gap, which is only partially sated by talk of trades and contract minutiae when everyone would rather be watching games.
For the American soccer aficionado, there were merely four empty days between the World Cup final and the ICC opener.