Dot The Map

We're back and this time, I've got a friend. As a man once dubbed the "Soccer Eagle" who then turned that nickname into a running bit that I've now revived for this extremely serious weekly newsletter/brain dump on the sport of association football in the United States of America, let me be the first to welcome Clutch, one of a trio of 2026 World Cup mascots, to the tribe.

Clutch represents the United States, obviously, and according to The Athletics's reporting, has "an unquenchable thirst for adventure, soaring across the United States and embracing every culture, game and moment with boundless curiosity and optimism."

And...

“Fearless on the pitch and uplifting off it, Clutch leads by action — rallying teammates, lifting spirits and turning every challenge into an opportunity to rise higher. A social spark and sports fanatic, Clutch, like all great midfielders, unites people wherever they go, proving that true flight is about purpose, passion and play.”

Rad. He's no Volar, but I suppose that's a high bar. "Clutch", though? Really? I know it's a sports term and maybe it's because I just dropped a couple grand on car repairs, but I can't help but think transmissions when I hear that word.

The Best Soccer Show has a new episode this week. Jared and I talked about Pulisic breaking the record for most goals by an American in the top five leagues of Europe, compared our way-too-early World Cup rosters to the one worked up by Doug McIntyre at Fox Sports, and played a game where I had to guess the prices of some pretty wild soccer gear Jared found on eBay.

Here's one of the items. How much would you pay? Listen the show (or watch on YouTube for the visuals) to find out what it's going for.

With that business done, let's get down to...business. This week I'm thinking about culture. If you've followed me for any length of time, you already know that this is my central interest when it comes to our game in our country. We can talk about selection and tactics and all kinds of things, but the one ineffable concept that not only ties it all together but will determine what heights we can reach is culture.

And here's the thing: There is no unifying American soccer culture and there probably will never be. The country is too big, our soccer-playing populace too diverse, and perhaps most importantly, we'll never be able to incubate a culture of our own that isn't heavily influenced by what we import via the connected media world.

We don't really trust ourselves to just do soccer our way and see what happens. Maybe it's baked into being American, but we're entirely too susceptible to aping the methods, styles, and cultures of the rest of the world when it comes to soccer. When you think about it, it's really just American soccer doing what the new kid does on his first day at a new school: try to fit in.

I don't know if that's a bad thing, necessarily, but I do see it as a factor in a lot of the problems we yell about in online soccer spaces. That we have a slew of soccer cultures all operating parallel to one another in different pockets of the country is a marvel—I wouldn't want it any other way.

But that marvel makes getting even a section of the soccer nation to pull in the same direction incredibly difficult. Everyone believes they have a better idea, from the lowest levels of youth soccer all the way to the top professional reaches of the game. Competition is baked into the American way of life and it is vigorously expressed through the game (and business) we call soccer.

While listening to Eric Wynalda talk about the elite youth soccer scene while doing WTF with him last week, I found myself thinking about how little has changed on that front in the 17 years since I launched my first blog. Youthm clubs are still mixing the business of making money through fees with the work of developing players even as MLS and a handful of other professional clubs have pushed into that space with admirable academy efforts.

I just don't know if we're capable of the kind of density that will make the United States an efficient developer of talent—meaning that a majority of young players showing real potential will live close enough to a professional academy setup (one that isn't focused on generating player fees but on creating pros for the local senior side) to have a chance to meet that potential.

If that sounds doomer, know that just because I don't think England 0r Spain-like efficiency is possible, it doesn't mean I don't think should try. The devil is in the details and there's also how things are born to consider, but the way forward for developing the players we need to become a true soccer power and win a World Cup is really just...more of everything.

More sustainable clubs in more places doing the work to not only get butts in seats to root on the hometown team, but to turn local kids into pro players that can represent the hometown team. And then maybe be sold to a bigger team. And then a bigger team after that. Then, if America isn't where the best club soccer in the world is played (that's the dream, but alas...) Real Madrid or Manchester City or insert-giant-club-here.

This is why I've come to the belief that we need to get professional soccer clubs launched in as many places as possible, as fast as possible. It's why the USL's big push—a push I have a few misgivings about for reasons I might elaborate on later—has me feeling genuinely excited rather than judgy and cynical. There was a time, maybe not even that long ago, when I would have said that this is too much, too fast, and there's more potential harm than progress in what USL the company is doing.

If you don't know what I mean, here it is in a nutshell: According to Justin Papadakis, a man carrying the title of "Deputy CEO and Chief Real Estate Officer", the USL has discussed stadium plans and potential pro soccer teams with 70 American localities. 70!

We did an overview of that number and what's going on with the USL on Morning Kickaround:

And you can hear Justin talk about it with Simon Evans of The Soccer Business.

The USL won't get all 70 stadiums and the clubs to go with them across the finish line, of course. Still, it's a staggering number and even converting those conversations into new clubs at a 25% rate could mean a massive wave of new expansion.

Oh, I should probably mention the USL is planning to add seven new teams to USL League One next year and Brooklyn, Jacksonville, and Santa Barbara are all slated to launch in the USL Championship in 2026.

So about that instinct towards cynicism. The USL isn't doing this out of some magnanimous desire to "grow the game". They are soccer people and soccer is important to them, but this is a business move meant to benefit the business of the USL. A peek under the hood of how the USL operates and the relationship between the organization, it's shareholders, and the clubs playing in its leagues might not always give you the warm and fuzzies.

Still, I'm on the soccer "abundance" train (yeah, I know that word is a little loaded right now). We need a lot more sausage and I'm going to stop worrying too much about how it gets made. If the USL can explode the reach of professional outdoor men's soccer in the United States while at the same time setting itself up to reap the commercial benefits, I'll find a way to be okay with it. As long as the terms are good enough to allow clubs to have a realistic shot at survival over time, that's good enough for me.

USL is doing what any smart business does: It's riding a wave. Something is happening in this moment where the rise of soccer is coinciding with changes in attitudes about sports in non-NFL cities. Younger leaders who grew up with the game in the US see opportunity to build legacies by facilitating the launch of soccer teams. For a century, minor league baseball was the main driver of civic pride for cities that could never expect to get a team from one of the Big Four sports. Soccer has changed that dynamic.

Going big on launching a D1 league and instituting promotion and relegation isn't about doing the right thing according to the soccer purists—it's about making money. It just so happens moving in that direction aligns with the history of the game in other places and gives USL "first to market" advantages. It's risky, but it's smart.

I think there's something unique about the psychology of supporting lower division soccer as opposed to minor league baseball (or hockey, I guess). Fans of USL Championship and League One clubs understand intellectually that their local team isn't playing the highest level of soccer, but since their clubs are independent of any direct influence from another organization higher up the ladder, the sense of soccer soverignty is secure. This, by the way, is why multi-club ownership sucks no matter where it happens.

The vibes of lower division soccer club support feel like the same ones that swirl around college sports teams in places without major pro sports. We treat it as normal, but it really doesn't make a lot of sense that millions of people live and die with the fortunes of college football and basketball teams representing schools they didn't go to that will never play for national championships at the highest levels of college sports.

On Morning Kickaround, we've taken to calling this movement to launch clubs in every decent-sized city in America "Dot The Map". We're dotting the map in a few ways on MK: Charting where our viewers and channel members come from (there's a cool little community growing around the show on Discord), marking where new clubs are launching and talking to their principals (Boise, Buffalo, Eugene, Dallas, Fort Wayne, just to name a few), and noting those places where some sort of early effort is underway to make pro soccer happen. For that last one, there are towns like Brownsville, TX and Firestone, CO actively investigating the possibility of building or renovating stadiums to entice someone to invest in a USL expansions franchise.

I'm on the soccer abundance train, but I don't want to give the impression that I only see sunshine and rainbows as it chugs across the country. Some skepticism about the way USL is going about this is not only justified, it's healthy. Charlie Davies recently talked about trying to launch a USL League One team in his home state of New Hampshire, only for the project to fall apart because of what he says was a shady partner brough to him by USL.

There's reason for concern if USL leadership is cutting corners to paper the proverbial room and failing to do enough due dilligence. We need clubs with solid foundations, not more fly-by-night opportunists. I don't want my collection of memorabilia from dead American soccer clubs to get any bigger.

If you're more of a USMNT-first kind of soccer fan, or you only really pay attention to Major League Soccer, you might be missing what's going on with lower division soccer. It's time to start paying attention.