Allow me to push back, just for a moment, on soccer’s prevailing merch mania. Kitting up to watch one’s preferred team in a stadium or tavern remains expected and accepted practice. I further realize that every club entity and national federation around the futbol world is feverishly marketing product to supporters and hangers-on, 24/7. But honestly: What’s with this exhibitionary jersey-wearing while out and about in public? Even in-stadium, the naked tribalism of fans dressing similarly, at best, strikes [...]

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY U.S. SOCCER FANS may not realize it — or wish to contemplate such an unbecoming reality — but for a short time immediately post-NASL, indoor soccer was the American game’s dominant professional strain. Indeed, the heyday of Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) took place during this period, even as the country’s first golden generation of outdoor talent began to coalesce. These coincidental facts, these uncomfortable truths, represent yet more indicators of a domestic soccer culture in a worrisome [...]