American soccer was once seen as something of a joke across the Atlantic.
Whilst South American soccer players are amongst the best in the world, most flock to Europe for their domestic action. The home of soccer is seen as England, and until the early nineties, they didn’t look favorably on our game. This comes despite the USMNT beating a star-studded England 1-0 at the 1950 World Cup; such was the English arrogance that some papers reported it as 10-1 to England, certain the telex machine had delivered a misprint.
That began to change when John Harkes, the star of the USMNT’s 1990 World Cup bid, moved to Sheffield Wednesday, but there was still a degree of skepticism.