U.S. Soccer

  • American soccer

    Understanding the pyramid: American soccer explained

    So, you’re new to American soccer. Maybe you caught the MLS bug, maybe your city just joined the USL, maybe you’re trying to figure out how the Open Cup works, or wonder what all this talk of divisions and tiers is about. That’s understandable! You’ve entered into something that...
  • USL logo

    USL announces new brands for 3 leagues

    The past few years have been remarkably eventful for the United Soccer Leagues, LLC, and now the organization that has a strong grasp on lower-division professional soccer in the United States has unveiled a new look to highlight its growing position in the landscape. The company unveiled Tuesday new...
  • NPSL clubs

    NPSL clubs have median survival rate of 2 years

    The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is a well-known adult amateur soccer league, which will be one of two (the other being the United Premier Soccer League, or UPSL) “tier one” leagues in the upcoming USASA tier format. Therefore, understanding the health and longevity of the NPSL, prima facie,...
  • Lower League America

    Lower League America: The Premiere

    Co-hosts Jason Davis of Compass Football and Nipun Chopra of Soc Takes debut their new series, Lower League America, which focuses on just that: lower-division soccer in the U.S. The two provide an overview of the American pyramid and run the gamut on all the stateside leagues already in...
  • Rocco Commisso - $500 million offer

    No runway, no $500 million

    As originally reported by ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle, New York Cosmos owner and de facto NASL leader Rocco Commisso had extended his “let’s talk about this” deadline to the USSF until May 31. On May 30, a letter from USSF secretary Dan Flynn was emailed to Commisso. U.S. Soccer provided...
  • NASL interim commissioner Rishi Sehgal

    Q&A with NASL interim commissioner Rishi Sehgal

    As revealed by Wes “Mantooth” Burdine of FiftyFive.One, the USSF decided to reject NASL’s application for Division II sanctioning last year. Since that time, lawsuits, injunctions and rejections have been the story of the North American Soccer League (NASL). As teams continued to exit the league and other leagues...
  • U.S. Open Cup regions

    2018 U.S. Open Cup regions are kinda weird

    Recently on Twitter, my friend and former colleague Chad Irvine pinged me to ask if I might hop on my soapbox and write (complain) about the region designations for the 2018 U.S. Open Cup. If you’re unfamiliar, the tournament in the early rounds splits the bracket into regional groupings....
  • NISA

    Soc Takes Pod Ep. 42: Peter Wilt on NISA, Indy Eleven, U.S. Soccer

    National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) founder Peter Wilt joins the panel to discuss the newly forming league, his former clubs and all things U.S. Soccer. Wilt helped launch the Chicago Fire, Chicago Red Stars and Indy Eleven, to name a few. Soc Takes contributing writer Kartik Krishnaiyer also guests...
  • Robert Palmer

    Opinion: Robert Palmer has compelling vision for new pro league

    Community-based amateur soccer is in many ways the lifeblood of the growth of American soccer on the grassroots level. The remarkable recent growth of local supporters culture taking the best of European traditions and marrying them with small and medium-sized town America is one of the great untold stories...
  • American Outlaws - U.S. Soccer - Athlete Council

    How Athlete Council bloc arrived at vote for Carlos Cordeiro

    ORLANDO, Fla. — Coming out of this weekend’s USSF Annual General Meeting and presidential election in Orlando, the role of the Athlete Council has been especially scrutinized. The council, whose bloc of votes — comprising 25.8 percent of the electorate and 51.6 percent of the votes needed to win...
  • Soc Takes Pod - Neil Morris

    Soc Takes Pod Ep. 36: Alexi Lalas sizes up state of American soccer

    Former U.S. men’s national team defender and current FOX Soccer analyst Alexi Lalas joins the panel of Aaron Gunyon, Nipun Chopra and Kevin Johnston to size up the current state of American soccer. The U.S. Soccer presidential race is heavily discussed, along with the move of Jonathan Gonzalez to...
  • Soccerwarz

    Holiday gift idea for soccer fans on your list: ‘Soccerwarz’

    The holidays are here, so now’s the perfect time to grab a gift for that soccer supporter friend or family member of yours. Over the course of the next few days, we’ll be featuring some books authored by our very own contributors here at Soc Takes. “Soccerwarz” by Kartik...