AN AMERICAN GAME

Oof, this one stings. But every time Belgium closes a door, Tom and Kirk open a window. This week: we look at the 60-year history of US Soccer "shooting for the Moon" and put some respect on our soccernauts who may have fallen short, but they got us just a bit closer to…well at least getting back to a quarterfinal. 

As the United States continues to climb a World Cup mountain that was too steep for smaller soccer nations like Germany and the Netherlands, Tom and Kirk re-cap the Bosnia-Herzegovina win; tip our hats to the Iranian team; and, as we celebrate our melting pot national team on our country's 250th birthday, share other patriotic ideas like: "trans rights are human rights."

It's only the second week of the World Cup, but we already have plenty of narrative. Kirk and Tom chop up the power of soft power, sweet vindication for US fans, and why the Pochettino "I brought futbol to the American barbarians" mythology is already way out of hand.  Go, USA! Beat Türkiye!

We warned you we'd be keeping it loose this month. Every week of the World Cup we’ll drop a short reaction episode; though, like added time, we’ll never be quite sure how long we’ll go. The Knicks triumph in the NBA Finals just a day after the US victory over Paraguay got Tom and Kirk thinking Big Thoughts about what it means to be a fan in a time when sports are more entwined with money and...

If the history of US soccer is longer than most people realize, so is the history of US soccer fandom. From factory workers cheering from the freezing sidelines on industrial lots in the late 1800s to families in air-conditioned domed stadiums today, wherever the game has been played, fans have watched. And for over a century, US fans have watched their national teams. National team fan support is...

In Season One, Seattle made our Starting XI of US Soccertowns (Portland, we've read your comments, and we are very sorry.) As the Emerald City prepares to host the 2026 World Cup, we're re-airing last fall’s segment on Seattle soccer history—but first we have the latest on how the city feels about FIFA, ferries...and that scheduled Iran game. Washington State Legends of Soccer: https://w...

From: Bank of America To: Tom and Kirk Subject: Pre-World Cup screening of SOCCERTOWN, USA And so an adventure began: an invitation to meet up in New Jersey for a screening of our award-winning 2019 documentary, followed by a panel with Tab Ramos, John Harkes, and Tony Meola, whose story we told. Which led to this adventure: our first unscripted episode, where we talk about an incredible night wit...

Tartan Army, assemble! Grab your Walker's shortbread and Laphroaig and listen to a tale of your ancestors, who traveled over the ocean to the United States and Canada... as many of you will this summer for the World Cup (if world events and FIFA prices allow.) This is a story of the Scotch Professors, who brought the pass-and-move version of football around the world and helped make it the Gl...

Last fall, Atlanta was one of our Starting XI of US Soccertowns. As it prepares to host games in the World Cup, Tom and Kirk take a look at how preparations are going in the literal home of US Soccer. Then we re-broadcast the Atlanta section from that Starting XI episode, so tourists (and natives) can get a quick hit of the long history of soccer in the Dirty South. It's only ten minutes, so...

Tucked in the middle of Newark, New Jersey is a small school called St. Benedict's Prep that has had a huge impact on high school soccer. For 40 years the Gray Bees have been the most dominant soccer program in the country...and one of the most dominant high school programs, in any sport, ever. How have they done it? Players like Tab Ramos, Claudio Reyna, and Gregg Berhalter helped. So have g...

"History rhymes" is a thing we say a lot, paraphrasing Mark Twain who was also probably thinking about soccer. With the threat of a boycott hanging over this summer's World Cup, we go back 47 years to when the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team qualified for the Moscow Olympics... and then had to stay home.  It's another ugly collision of sports and politics, with Iran again playing a majo...

In 2028, when USL Premier launches, the United States will have a Division One pro soccer league at the top of a promotion-relegation pyramid. Sexy! But we're in 2026, when a potential players' strike threatens the entire USL season. Not sexy! Tom and Kirk look at USL's place in the US soccer landscape--at the intersection of small town dreams and big business--and, with the help of...

In 2018, when the United States, Mexico, and Canada were selected to co-host this year’s World Cup, it sounded like fun: three friendly democracies throwing the world's biggest soccer party. LOL. LMAO, even.  To kick off Season 2 of AAG, Tom and Kirk take a look at our (longer than you think) soccer history with our northern and southern neighbors and put some color back on what’s become a pr...

We’re back! Sort of. Season Two of AN AMERICAN GAME will be coming your way in February 2026, and we’ve got so many new stories to share about US soccer history that we’re burning one now. Hahaha that can’t possibly come back to bite us, right? Anyway, think of this as a holiday gift, because it’s about one of our favorite holiday films: the movie that influenced some of our greatest players, coac...

If towns make a nation, we think our soccertowns make us a soccer nation. That’s kind of, like, our whole thing–it’s literally the name of the show. In our final episode of Season 1, we play a full 90 minutes (plus added time!) and dig into the deep roots of the game across the United States, from sea to shining sea. If you think we got our lineup wrong, let us know at: soccertownmedia@gmail.com O...

Look, if it were up to Tom and Kirk they'd just play through but, you know, Wet-Bulb Temperature, FIFPRO Players' Union mandates, blah blah blah. So while the team guzzles [ENERGY DRINK SPONSOR TK], enjoy this mini-episode where they follow up on some earlier stories, make a few (small) corrections, and chat a bit about a recurring character on AN AMERICAN GAME: Alexi Lalas. Back next we...

The US victory in the 1999 Women’s World Cup has been called “a tsunami hitting the shore” for women’s soccer in the United States. But the seismic activity that started that wave goes way back to the 19th century. (Surprised? You must be new here.) Tom and Kirk track the long line of women’s soccer that led to an under-appreciated quake: the formation of the very first US Women’s National Team, t...

Some of our greatest writers have been goalkeepers. Unfortunately, none were available for this episode, so Tom and Kirk dug out their Goalkeepers’ Union cards to celebrate the one position where the United States has produced world class soccer talent for 140 years–and will continue to if US Soccer listens to this episode. So stop asking, “What if our best athletes played soccer?” and get to know...

Peep! It's halftime at AN AMERICAN GAME, and we’re in the locker room making "tactical adjustments" (getting ice packs strapped to our bodies while guzzling ibuprofen and Gatorade.) So let's go over to the studio where Alexi- haha, no, where Tom and Kirk give a quick preview of next week's episode, a fun fact about themselves, and a very dignified request to like and/or su...

What has steamships, chloroform, and the King of Romania? This episode of An American Game, about the US National Team's incredible performance in the first World Cup, hosted by Uruguay in 1930. Tom and Kirk take us back to that tough and talented team, who wore the Stars and Stripes and showed the world that diversity is our strength--and that the United States is not afraid to change hotels...

Quick: what's the oldest trophy in American sports? Wrong. In Episode 2 of An American Game , Tom and Kirk tell the story of the AFA Cup, first given out 140 years ago (before the Stanley Cup) and, for decades, the top prize in American soccer. But then the Tiffany-designed trophy disappeared -- dropped out of the historical record, along with so much of US soccer. Fortunately, like Indiana J...

How did a bullet change the course of American soccer? In the first of a new series about the long, colorful, and mostly-forgotten history of US soccer, Tom McCabe and Kirk Rudell--old friends, college teammates, soccer obsessives--join forces to tell the story of Thomas "Bullets" Cahill, the 'Father of American Soccer.' They follow Cahill from his tough St. Louis childhood in...

A new series from the makers of the documentary SOCCERTOWN, USA about the long and colorful history of American soccer. Tom and Kirk are old friends and former teammates who share a belief that the United States is a soccer nation, and they're going to prove it, one story at a time. Fortunately, Tom is a leading scholar of American soccer and Kirk is a veteran Hollywood screenwriter, so it’s...