In 1863, England became the first country to play football. As a result of the colonization campaign of the latter, this sport made its way to the South American continent, where it developed significantly. From there, it produced football legends like Maradona and Pele. However, for whatever reason, the sports heritage of the British in North America ended up developing differently. Find out more information about the history of football in the United States using the city of Philadelphia as an example, including when residents of the city started playing the game, legendary teams and the present-day situation at iphiladelphia.
Not football, but soccer?
Football is a team sport that comes in a variety of forms. Many people mix up football and soccer, not fully comprehending their differences. The fundamental distinction is whether the game is played with your hands or your feet. To put it simply, the most important thing to remember for the rest of your life is that football originated in England and is now played all over the world. However, soccer is primarily played in the United States of America since it is common to refer to the aforementioned sport in this manner. Further on, we will use the term “football” more frequently in this material, but the American reader should remember which of them we are referring to in the context of Philadelphia.
First steps in football for residents of the city
The first football match according to the first accepted rules took place in the City of Brotherly Love on March 19, 1881. This sport was developed in our region and coastal regions thanks to British immigration at the time. They were later joined by local groups, particularly the first Philadelphia groups founded on ethnic affiliations. The development of a railway in the city also aided in the creation of local sports clubs, which allowed players to get to the game while traveling around Pennsylvania.
In 1889, the first Football League was founded, with clubs from three cities, including Chester, Eddystone and, of course, Philadelphia. While some teams from the sports Union called PAFU toured the United States of America, other Philadelphia teams arranged their own competitions. When compared to the professional level, the latter did not lose popularity, the stadiums were completely packed. The Philadelphia team’s biggest triumph in the nineteenth century occurred around this time when for the first time local players won the American championship, a competition that featured a lot of teams from our region. Bethlehem Steel then won the country’s premier football championship, forever imprinting its name in history. Later, due to a number of economic issues at the time, there was a fall in interest in this sport.
What was football like in Philadelphia in the 20th century?
At the beginning of the new millennium, the City of Brotherly Love was dominated by other sports, and football was popular among immigrant communities. With the first international friendly football match in Philly in 1901, it was feasible to attract the interest of the sports audience once again. Then, two English cricket clubs decided to play football. As a result, fans of a different foreign sport began to attend football matches.
In 1911, the first capital of the United States already had five adult amateur championships and one professional league. No other city on the North American continent could boast of such achievement at the time. Without good child and adolescent development in Philadelphia, the results would most likely be less successful. Furthermore, investments were made in the youth who eventually pushed the British out of the national football teams.
For example, there was once a Lighthouse Boys Club in our city that recruited athletes from American football by offering the opportunity to pursue education on the basis of the team. This allowed sportsmen to get an education and play their favorite game. The aforementioned club won five gold medals at the national championship among the nineteen-year-old athletes. More significantly, the young Philadelphia team later competed on an international level as a member of the first adult team representing the nation at the Olympic Games and the World Cup.
The composition and schedule for the national team were first formed when the United States football body was originally constituted, which was not done without the support of the most athletically successful state, Pennsylvania. 14 Eagles, though from the standpoint of the American national team’s development, it would be more correct to say Eaglets, were sent on a football tour across Northern Europe. The first team of the United States of America included five Philadelphia football players, and by the 1924 Olympics, eight out of seventeen Olympians were Philadelphians.
After 1945, Philadelphia was dominated by sports teams founded by European emigrants: the First German Sport Club Phoenix, the German Americans, the Vereinigung Erzgebirge, as well as the Ukrainian Nationals. They competed against local clubs that only fielded their own trainees. The Ukrainian Nationals deserve special recognition since they won six gold medals in the American Championship and four U.S. Cups. This club was almost entirely composed of Ukrainian natives.
In 1973, the season of a modified championship called the North American Soccer League began. Philadelphia had only one team in the NASL, which played its games at Veterans Stadium. After the season, the Atoms (as the locals called them) relocated to another city, and there were no teams from our region in the professional premier tier for the next 30 years. Other American teams did, however, play here, and women’s football did not stand still.
At the end of the twentieth century, football officials set an ambitious goal to win the right to host the World Cup in the United States. Despite their connections, FIFA rejected the Americans due to the lack of a national top division in the country. In 1996, MLS was founded to replace the NASL, which disintegrated a few years later.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the main American championship for professional football players continued to develop despite difficulties. Perhaps, for complete success, there was only a sports club from the state’s historical football center missing. Fans from Philadelphia decided to change that in 2007. Concerned citizens who loved the world’s most popular sport urged the formation of a team to compete in the MLS. Their words had a foundation in the form of an elite division stadium with over eighteen thousand seats. However, a sizable fan base was still the main reason that persuaded regional investors to pay attention to this project. In 2008, the Philadelphia Union joined the American League as the 16th team.
The modern period of Philadelphia football history
As it turned out later, sports infrastructure and desperate fans are insufficient for success in modern football. The aforementioned club failed to live up to the expectations of locals who grew up hearing stories about gold medals in the United States Cup.
Though, by uniting and rebranding football unions, we managed to satisfy everyone’s requirements. Following the selection of the name, the team Bethlehem Steel was formed in Philadelphia, named after the famed band of the previous century.
Bethlehem Steel was approached very differently in Philadelphia. Of course, they wanted to win every game, but spending multiple seasons in the middle of the table taught them to value every scoring point. So when Bethlehem Steel finished sixth in the league, the Goodman Stadium was happy all night.
In 2019, the aforementioned team underwent another name change and dropped down to the first division. When the new MLS Next Pro League, which replaced the first division in the hierarchy of American football leagues, was unveiled in the winter of 2021, they declared that they would participate in it. In the inaugural season of 2022, 21 teams competed, with the Football Club of Philadelphia finishing seventh at the end of the championship.