Up until the 1920s, many international players continued to settle in the United States to play. However, when the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 passed, severely limiting the number of immigrants allowed in the U.S., migration came to a crashing halt, slowing the rate of soccer development in the country, according to Tallec Marston.
During this time, soccer developed into a recreational working-class sport, in which intramural participation was prominent. During the early 20th century, there were hotbeds of soccer activity scattered across the country, notably in St. Louis.
“The immigrant thread of the history of soccer is one that has always been part of the historical tapestry,” says Tallec Marston. He explains that while soccer tradition began with immigrants of primarily British, Irish, and German roots, it continued to evolve over the years.
Through the 1930s, Italian immigrants began a soccer club in western Pennsylvania. A very niche social club was formed, in which immigrants concentrated from a particular town called Avella settled into an industrial area where they found mining and railroad jobs. They created social and sports clubs, and their youth soccer team eventually won the National Junior Challenge Cup in 1939 and 1940, according to Tallec Marston.
In recent years, the same pattern can be found among Latinos. “It is something that colors the youth soccer landscape a great deal,” said Tallec Marston. “It is an amazing tapestry, but the fact that you have great media coverage of soccer in Spanish language media in the U.S. today is no different to the great coverage given to soccer in foreign language newspapers in the United States over much of the 20th century.” He explained that proof of soccer culture can be found through foreign language archives, coverage that didn’t particularly exist in mainstream media at the time.
In 1966, the World Cup was televised in the U.S. for the first time. This allowed the sport to gain immense traction, as soccer entered American homes. In 1975, Brazilian legend Pelé, signed with the New York Cosmos. According to Tallec Marston, Henry Kissinger becomes a major advocate for U.S. soccer. “All of a sudden, Pelé is invited to the White House [and] you have this elevation of the sport into the public’s consciousness.”
At this point in the ’70s, a mom-and-dad grassroots soccer movement began in the suburbs, kicking off the youth soccer phenomenon. Parents started clubs and associations, involving parks and recreation departments to increase soccer equipment and infrastructure in public spaces. Communities started to assemble soccer camps, providing young people with the opportunity to spend their days (and sometimes nights) away practicing the game. “There is this huge transformation in the way that the game is viewed, and part of that is also due to the fact that the game can be played by everyone in the 1970s,” explained Tallec Marston, “And that means girls.”