Why America Doesn't Love Soccer (Except When It Does)

About this episode

This episode explores the reasons behind America's ambivalence towards soccer and its evolving sports culture.

Is there anything more distinctively American than its sports culture? In a previous episode of this podcast, we discussed the tragic decline and partial revival of American cricket. As the 2026 World Cup kicks off in the US Adam asks why a sport that took over the world has been so marginal for so long in America – and wonders if that’s finally changing. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a form of football that had begun in English public schools became a global phenomenon, played almost everywhere except in the United States. There, a strange alternative form of football was played instead, one in which men in helmets stand around for long periods, interrupted by occasional violent bursts of energy. This is a story about culture, gender politics, race, class and migration – and, as with the story of cricket’s demise -- about nationhood. Guests on this episode: Frank Guridy, Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies and Professor of History at Columbia. His most recent book is The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play (Basic Books, 2024) which tells the story of the American stadium as an…

People in this episode

Host: Adam Smith

Guests: Frank Guridy, Uta Balbier

Topics covered

• American sports culture
• soccer in America
• cultural history
• gender politics
• race and class
• migration
• nationhood

Keywords

• soccer
• American sports
• cultural history
• Frank Guridy
• Uta Balbier
• gender politics
• race
• migration
• nationhood

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Columbia, Oxford

Books & works: The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play

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