States of Play Soccer and Society Perspectives on the Global Game in America

Introduction: An American Time Capsule: Retrospection and Reflexivity Regarding Soccer in the United States

Jeffrey W. Kassing

Exceptionalities

1. National Sports and Other Myths: The Failure of US Soccer

Sandra Collins

2. Fleet Feet: The USSF and the Peculiarities of Soccer Fandom in America.

Sean Brown

3. Soccer as Un-American Activity: A Thematic Analysis of Online US Media and Flopping in the World’s Game

David Asa Schwartz

4. Footballers, Migrants and Scholars: The Globalization of US Men’s College Soccer

Ryan Kirk and Anthony Weaver

Femininities

5. Women’s Soccer in the United States: Yet Another American ‘Exceptionalism’

Adrei S. Markovits and Steven L. Hellerman

6. Critical Events or Critical Conditions: The 1999 Women’s World Cup and the Women’s United Soccer Association

Sean Brown

7. Soccer in the USA: ‘Holding Out for a Hero?’

Dolores P. Martinez

8. She’s the Man: Michelle Akers ‘Unruly’ Game and the ‘Potentiality’ of Queer Failure in Early Development of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team

Eileen Narcotta-Welp

Challenges

9. Flawed Heroes and Great Talents: The Challenges Associated with Framing Soccer Legends in the NASL

Fernando Delgado

10. All Together Now, Click: MLS Soccer Fans in Cyberspace

Wayne Wilson

11. The Importance of Building Positive Relationships Between Hispanic Audiences and Major League Soccer Franchises: A Case Study of the Public Relations Challenges Facing Houston 1836

Ric Jensen and Jason Sosa

12. American Soccer at a Crossroad: MLS’s Struggle Between the Exigencies of Traditional American Sports Culture and the Expectations of the Global Soccer Community

Zach Blumberg and Andrei S. Markovits

Gateways

13. ‘For Club and Country?’: The Impact of the International Game on US Soccer Supporters from the 1994 World Cup to the Present

Markus Gerke

14. Home Field Advantage? Exploring Credibility of British and American Announcers Covering United States Soccer

John Shrader and David Cassilo

15. Overcoming American Exceptionalism and Media Antipathy Via the  Digital Pitch: Soccer, Attitudinal Change, and Video Game Play

Jeffrey W. Kassing

16. Coach Lasso and the Embodiment of American Exceptionalism: NBC Sports’ Promotion of English Premier League Football as the Foreign Sport

Jeffrey W. Kassing

Pockets

17. Adaptive Transnational Identity and the Selling of Soccer: The New England Revolution and Lusophone Migrant Populations

Miguel Moniz

18. Vamos, Vamos Aceirteros: Soccer and the Latino Community in Richmond, California

 Ilann S. Messeri

19. The Promise of Soccer in America: The Open Play of Ethnic Subcultures

Derek Van Rheenen

20. Cooper’s Block: America’s First Soccer Neighbourhood

Thomas A. McCabe

Biography

Jeffrey W. Kassing is faculty at Arizona State University. His work explores sport, politics, media, fandom and soccer. He co-authored The Art of Tifo: Identity, Representation, and Performing Fandom in Football/Soccer and co-edited Football and Diaspora: Connecting Dispersed Communities through the Global Game.