Soccer In the U.S. - mid level

Soccer in the United States is commonly known as U.S. Soccer. There are many levels of

soccer in the country, including the national teams, professional leagues, and the amateur

game.

With over 13 million Americans playing soccer in the United States, soccer is the third

most played team sport in the U.S., behind only basketball and baseball/softball.

The popularity of soccer in the U.S. has been growing since the 1960s and 1970s, and got

a big boost when the United States was host for the 1994 World Cup.

The highest professional soccer league in the U.S. is Major League Soccer. MLS began

play in 1996 with 10 teams, and has grown to 20 teams (17 in the United States and 3 in

Canada), with further expansion (mer utbyggnad) planned. The MLS season runs from

March to December,. With about 20,000 people watching each game MLS has the third

highest amount of watchers of any sports league in the U.S.

Soccer fans also follow the U.S. national teams in international competition. The 2015

FIFA Women's World Cup Final drew a record 26.7 million viewers, greater than final

games of the 2014 World Series or the 2015 NBA Finals, and the 2010 Men's World Cup

final drew 26.5 million viewers[11] Themen's national team has played in every World Cup

since 1990, and the women's national team has won three Women's World Cup titles and

four gold medals at the Summer Olympics.

Best male and female players

Landon Donovan

What can be said of Landon Donovan? He was the rare combination of gifted goalscorer

and midfielder. He was a lightning-fast one-man counter-attack. His genius – and his

achievements (prestationer) – stand alone among the American players.

Donovan retired (drog sig tillbaka) from the game at the age of 32. He was then on the top

list of goals and assists.

For years, when the US needed, Donovan stepped up and delivered (levererade).

In 2015, he was named by The Guardian as the greatest male American soccer player of

all-time.

Donovan was born on March 4, 1982, in Ontario, California, to Donna Kenney-Cash, a

special education teacher, and Tim Donovan, a semi-professional ice hockey player

originally from Canada, which makes Donovan a Canadian citizen by descent (härkomst).

His mother raised him and his siblings in Redlands, California.[12]

When Donovan was six, his mother allowed him to join an organized league, and he

scored seven goals in his first game. In 1997, he was accepted into U.S. Youth Soccer's

Olympic Development Program. He has played for many teams for ex. Bayern Munich in

Germany.

Alex Morgan 

Soccer player Alex Morgan has starred

for the U.S. national teams that won

Olympic gold and the FIFA Women's

World Cup.

Alex Morgan became the youngest member of the U.S. women's national soccer team in

2009, and was the first overall pick in the 2011 Women's Professional Soccer draft

(uttagning) . At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Morgan won her first Olympic gold

medal by helping the U.S. women defeat Japan. Three years later, she was a leader on

the team that again defeated (besegrade)Japan to win the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Early Life

Alex Morgan was a multisport athlete growing up, but she didn't start playing organized

soccer until she was 14 years old. She attended (gick på) Diamond Bar High School,

where she was a three-time all-league pick and was named an NSCAA All-American. After

high school, Morgan went to the University of California at Berkeley.

In 2008, she helped the United States get to the championship of the FIFA U-20 Women’s

World Cup, scoring the winning goal in the final against North Korea—named the Goal of

the Tournament and second-best Goal of the Year by FIFA.

In 2012, Morgan landed a spot on the U.S. Olympic women's soccer team. At the 2012

Summer Olympic Games, held in London, Morgan won her first Olympic medal, a gold,

with the American team. The team beat Japan, 2-1, in a revengeful match watched by

nearly 80,300—the largest soccer crowd in Olympics history.

Injured (skadad) in the knee during the spring of 2015, Morgan was not at full strength by

the start of the FIFA World Cup in June. However, the star forward returned to the starting

lineup by the close of group play, and went on to help the U.S. women claim their first

World Cup title since 1999.

In March 2016, Morgan joined several of her teammates to file a complaint (klagomål) of

wage (lön) discrimination against U.S. Soccer, where women's and men's wages was not

equal.