Sports are popular all over the world today. And there is probably no person in the world who would not have been fond of a particular sport or loved it. In addition to everyone’s favorite, well-known and most important, every country has the sport that is the most popular. For each country it is different. And today we are going to talk about American soccer, the most popular sport in the United States of America. That is where it has most of its audience and fans. And this is not surprising – in other countries it does not have such wide popularity and prevalence.

In many countries, the word soccer is understood as something more traditional and classic, namely ordinary soccer, which was invented by the British. Therefore, when it comes to this game, people immediately start looking for analogies with regular soccer or soccer. And herein lies one of the main mistakes when getting acquainted with this sport. It has nothing in common with ordinary soccer, except the name. So, American soccer is the most popular game in the United States of America, a very contact and tough sport, it has a lot of fighting and its own rules. We will tell you about it in this article.

HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN SOCCER
This game is now considered one of the main symbols of that very country with a huge number of states. Like the United States itself, this game is not very old. The history of its origin is quite interesting and even, in some ways, simple. One day in 1823, in a town called Rugby was held soccer game. An ordinary soccer match, with the traditional rules. In the midst of the game, one of the players, whose name was William Webb Ellis, took the ball in his hands and ran with it to the goal, throwing the ball with his hands.

This situation puzzled everyone, but the episode prompted the creation of the game, which later gave its name – Rugby. And gradually the rugby began to get used to and played on a par with regular soccer. One day, almost half a century later, in 1869, students from two universities – Princeton and Rutgers gathered on the soccer field of New Brunswick, to play something between rugby and classic soccer. This meeting took place on November 6. This day is now considered to be the official birth date of such a game as American Football.

A very important role in the formation of the sport at the beginning played a man like Walter Camp. He was a sportsman, refereeing games, commentating on them, and playing. He was even called the father of the game for the systematization he brought to the game. He introduced rules and new techniques that made the game unique and increasingly away from the similarities with rugby and regular soccer. In the 20th century, the history of the game was just gaining momentum. Initially, the players had no protection, no equipment. This point greatly angered one of the then U.S. presidents. Moreover, he worried that injuries and rough play were clearly not good for the health of the players and spoil the image of the game. In response, they introduced some rules and equipped the players with equipment to protect them from snaps and hard contact. In 1939, this also added a helmet, which previously did not exist, and introduced a clause on the compulsory wearing of protective gear.

Almost throughout the century the game changed and experimented with its components. Changed length of the field, the number of participants in the game, the time allotted to the game and more. Players who were better than others and stood out began to appear, schools with private tuition began to open. In 1920 a union was created, which at first had only a few teams. At the same time, a national soccer league, referred to as the NFL, was also created. Gradually, the game began to gain professional status and increasingly attracted fans and those willing to play. In 1972, a landmark event happened for the sport – it passed baseball, another very important game for every American, in terms of TV broadcast ratings. The second most involved country in the sport is Canada, but their soccer has slightly different rules.

The rules in American soccer are a separate topic and are subject to different angles. Since this game is an amalgamation of the other two and it has many tweaks, it is difficult to understand at first glance. Although, in fact, the rules here are simple and straightforward if you get into them.