Moment or Movement? (Part 2)

How Should We Interpret Soccer's Current Momentum in the United States?

Part 2 Americans Abroad

So as we saw in part 1, pop-culture consumers seem to be engaging in and devouring soccer in four course meals as opposed to the bits and pieces of old. But, don’t just take a few pop culture anecdotes as evidence for a bigger trend. Look at the current distribution of American talent throughout the world. In both the men’s and women’s game, it would be impossible to tell the story of European Soccer’s top clubs without mentioning American players.

On the women’s side the likes of Morgan, Lloyd, Lavelle and Heath have all moved to Europe. This comes off the impetus of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, where the viewership of the final was 22% higher than the men’s final just one year prior. Whether that is indicative of some gender-based difference or just a growing interest in the sport, either way the latter still remains true. More people watched in 2019 than in 2018.

On the men’s side, the USMNT website currently tallies 51 players abroad. That is a huge leap from numbers hovering around half that just a few years ago. What’s more, the majority of these players are under 25 years old. Oh and for the first time since the MLS was founded in 1993, we had a whole 23 man roster without a single current MLS player on it. Even more impressive, of those 51, 16 are on teams competing in the top 6 leagues in Europe (others are gaining experience in leagues notorious for player development).

For context and clarity, I am going to milk the hell out of the March Madness metaphor from part 1.

In most soccer countries, there are multiple competitions.

There is the league, which would be the regular season Conference Championship. To win the league you have to have the best record for the whole regular season, just like Michigan did in the Big Ten this season (looking at you Illinois fans). This is a big deal and for many teams (all but the Super League Traitors) the most important title to win. If the only trophy you won all season was the league, it would still be considered a highly successful campaign.

Next is the league cup, which can be likened to the Big Ten Conference Tournament. Everyone makes the first round, and then it takes an elimination format until you get to the winner. In European soccer, matchups are drawn at random however, and not based on seeding.

Thirdly, most countries have some form of open cup. The most famous is England’s, the FA Cup. Essentially, this competition format would be if you took every team in the country and put them in the same tournament. So Division 1, 2, and 3, schools all competed in a basketball tournament for the trophy. You would expect the D1 powerhouses to win, or at least a mid-major, but every once in a while you get the frisky D3 team that had two really good recruiting classes, a young eager-to-prove-himself head coach, a little bit of luck, and voila, they make the final four. That’s the beauty of the open cups, “cup runs”.

And finally, the crown jewel of European Soccer, the UEFA Champions League. This is March Madness. The best most qualified teams from around the continent come together to compete for the ultimate prize. Similarly, qualification for this is based on automatic bids which are awarded top league finishers and cup winners. However one key difference to the format is that there are two stages. A group stage and a knockout stage. This may sound familiar to anyone that has followed international soccer at all. Basically there are 32 teams, split into 8 4-team groups. Then they play each other and the top 2 teams from each group advance to the knockouts. From there it’s a classic 1 seed vs 2 seed tournament bracket competition.

And no March Madness reference would be complete without an NIT, which is called the UEFA Europa League. Truthfully the better comparison for the Europa League is more like the best College Football Bowl game outside of the National Championship. It still carries hefty amounts of prestige and winnings, but is no match for the bigger brother Champions League.

I know that was a lot of background, and you are thinking “hey cool college football reference” and/or “get back to America please”.

So, Americans are participating in Europe at historically high levels. It makes sense that with these high levels, we would see other bits of history written before our eyes. But what might surprise you is that we are writing pages, not passages, at a time.

For example, last season (kind of two years ago but COVID messed all the timing up) Tyler Adams, (RB Leipzig, currently 2nd in top league in Germany) currently 22 years old, became the first American to score in a UEFA Champions League (again, most prestigious tournament in club soccer) quarterfinal.

Just over the last week Christian Pulisic at 22 (Chelsea, 4th in top league in England) became the first to score and assist in a U.C.L. semifinal. Not only that, but his goal also made him the youngest player to score for Chelsea in a UCL semi final, and the first American to ever score against Real Madrid (Yankees of Champions League and Spanish First Division). Pulisic adds these to a long line of “first” and “youngest” accomplishments in European competitions and as an American abroad.

Similarly, a few weeks ago Zack Steffen (Manchester City, 1st top league in England) became the first American to win the English League Cup. The 26 year old Steffen will soon be the first to win the Premier League as well, with Man City 3 points from clinching the title.

And as a culminating moment, on May 29th, Steffen and Pulisic will battle it out to become only the second American ever to win the UEFA Champions League. By reaching the final alone, they have just become the second and third to accomplish that feat. The only other occurrence was all the way back in 1996.

In Spain, 20 year old Defender Sergiño Dest recently became the first american to win the Spanish League cup, or Copa del Rey, which he did alongside Lionel Messi and Barcelona (Tied for second, Spanish top league). Oh and did I mention, USMNT teammate Konrad De La Fuente (19) has also seen first team action for Barecelona. Anyway, Dest has been an integral piece of the Catalan machine this season, appearing in 40 games in all competitions and contributing to 4 goals along the way. This all comes one season after starring for an Ajax (perennial powerhouse team in Holland) team that saw their all-but-certain league title swallowed up by a technicality with COVID-19.

Other key contributors include but are not limited to the likes of Weston Mckennie, Gio Reyna, Brendon Aaronson, Yunus Musah, Ethan Horvath and Timothy Weah. Mckennie plays for Juventus alongside Cristiano Ronaldo on a daily basis. The Turin-based team had won the last 9 league titles before this season, and they always advance to the knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Google Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund, renowned for developing incredible young players and selling them for millions of dollars, fourth in German top league) and you will see he is a problem for top defenders around the world. His ability and final product in the attacking half of the pitch has him on the radar of major clubs across the continent.

Oh and Tim Weah, 21 year old son of 1995 Ballon d’Or and Fifa Player World Player of the Year George Weah, has his team at the top of the French league table with three games to go.

Sorry if that felt like a proud grandparent bragging at Thursday night bingo, but 5 years ago, there would have been almost nothing to say. And these guys aren’t just flukes or outliers either. Americans have increasingly been integral parts of their team’s successes the last few seasons. Every weekend you can turn on the highlights from around Europe and see top goals from young American stars playing alongside world class teammates, against quality opposition.

Okay cool, young American players are doing well in Europe. Why does it matter?

Well for one, Europe is the best of the best when it comes to soccer. You can look at European Teams succeeding on the international stage at the World Cup as one indicator. You can look to the history books and infer that clubs, leagues and governances in Europe starting out in the early to mid 1800s, probably have a leg up on the U.S. whose beginnings are suggested to be around 60 years later, although there is conflicting literature.

You could also look at the cultural importance of soccer in Europe versus in the U.S. In part 1 we discussed the increasing importance and relevance of soccer in the States. But in Europe, it is a religion bordering on cult, economy, network, and way of life. It is the thread that binds society. You may have seen the rants (if not check out James Corden’s here, the 6 min mark) related to the Super League, or picked up on it in Ted Lasso, but many of the teams in Europe are built by and for the community in which they reside. There is no Baltimore Colts packing up and moving in the middle of the night to Indianapolis in European Soccer. Soccer clubs in Europe are quite literally the foundations of their neighborhoods and cities.

Additionally, there is no NBA, NFL, or other main attraction to steal the spotlight. Golf, Rugby, Cricket, Tennis, and Boxing are distant alternatives to soccer. On the contrary, in the U.S., soccer comes in fifth, behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL.

But to most easily see why we want American’s playing in Europe, it’s pretty simple. That’s where all the best players play. Messi and Ronaldo. Ronaldinho and Zidane. Mbappe and Haaland. Maradona and Cruyff. If they were on the cover of FIFA, they played in Europe. The best of the best flock to, and thrive, in Europe. That’s just the way it is.

And secondly, it used to be that Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey were the only Americans getting praised in Europe on a consistent basis. Even with other American stars like Beasley, Holden, Donavan, Bradley, Johnson, Cherundolo, Cameron, Ream, and more logging serious minutes, their contributions were rarely in the spotlight (back to accessibility).

Seriously, without googling, how many of those names do you recognize? How many of their first names can you list?

On top of that, most of these players were in Europe after having already proven themselves on the international or domestic stage. Few had European teams take a chance on investing in them at a young age. Americans weren’t good at soccer. They were good athletes, and hard workers, but couldn’t translate to the top European clubs. That was just the narrative around it.

Now, Americans are becoming stars on the biggest stages, and before they’re even old enough to rent a car. For the first time in U.S. soccer history, American players are a commodity, not a roster filler. Oh and as for American coaches, well I’ll do a story on that. But in the meantime, keep an eye on Jesse Marsch.

Can you feel the momentum yet?

To be fair, it’s only responsible to note that in sports we often see golden generations and super teams fall short of their ultimate prize. And these shortcomings lead to rebuilds, to teams dissolving, and to starting over and oftentimes reinvesting.

But, in other cases, there is a consistent pipeline, development, and ecosystem that generates sustained levels of success across time. So before we get too excited (too late?) and call this a movement into the elite ranks of soccer nations, we need to slow down and see at least two things happen.

The first is that we need continued American presence on top teams across the world, playing meaningful minutes with their clubs.

The second thing we need to do...win. Consistently. Across time. Across competitions. Club, international, next week, next year, next decade. We need to win.

But, with the 51 guys and counting we have representing us, it’s getting easier to imagine and rationalize those scenarios. And what’s more, it’s getting easier to hope. And as the Lasso fans know, we believe in hope.