One word sums up the article written in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues in 2012, OUTDATED. American soccer history has had many major benchmarks and breakthroughs to “average Americans”, but the one that put soccer on the cover of newspapers, and forever in the mind of casual American sports fans is the signing of David Beckham to the LA Galaxy in 2007. I believe that American soccer history can be broken up into two periods, Pre-Beckham and Post-Beckham. Although this article was posted in 2012, the author did not use a single piece of evidence from the Post-Beckham era. In fact, his only mention of the 2010 World Cup came in the conclusion of the article.

Although the article makes many valid points from the Pre-Beckham era, such as the unrecognizable faces of soccer, and the ambivalence toward soccer as a whole, he seems to be a decade late in stating these facts. In 2012, when this article was published, most SportCenter viewers would be able to recognize Cristiano Ronaldo, Leonel Messi and even Landon Donovan. Many of these fans would have seen Donovan’s goal against Algeria in the 2010 world cup, while some may even have seen Sergio Aguero’s late goal to win the Premiere League in 2012. The collective sports fandom in the United States was no longer unaware of soccer. 

Around the time of the research the author was doing, MLS was in decline and while the USMNT had put on a tremendous display at the 2002 World Cup, it was only the begging of the national media spotlight lingering on “the beautiful game”. By the time this article was published, MLS was in the middle of massive expansion, eventually leading to a $100 million franchise fee for NYCFC. Every major media empire was figuring a way to get a piece of the exponentially expanding American soccer fan base. Finally, in the time from 2007 to 2012, the American Outlaws, a US Supporters group had been founded and would be nearing its 100 chapter landmark, bringing soccer fandom and support to a whole new level in the US.

The author in jest, writes; “another writer, after not recognizing a single player on the U.S. men’s national team, stated, “Brandi Chastain, the US woman’s soccer player who flashed us her sports bra at the 2000 (sic) World Cup. Her I’d recognize”. With this he shows the age of his research. The same companies who’s writers were saying this in 2006, were fighting for a tiny portion of soccer coverage in 2012, when the article was published.