The 1994 World Cup, the only men’s World Cup played in the U.S., left an enduring legacy with the birth of Major League Soccer, the first-division league FIFA required the country to create as a condition for hosting the tournament.
Thirty years later MLS, which is about to expand to 30 teams, is the largest soccer league in the world. So with the World Cup returning in less than two years, U.S. Soccer has been searching for a suitable encore, one that would complement MLS by growing the sport at the grassroots level.
On Thursday it announced one such program, the Soccer Forward Foundation.