American soccer has a complicated relationship with Europe.

​

We borrow the language. The traditions. The songs. The aesthetics. Sometimes even the belief that there is a correct way to be a soccer fan and Europe figured it out first.

​

I understand why.

​

European football has more than a century of history behind many of its clubs. Generations have built rituals, rivalries and supporter cultures that American soccer is still developing. There is a lot worth learning from that.

 

I just don't think learning from something requires becoming it.

​

American soccer already has its own culture. It looks like MLS supporters standing behind a goal and Premier League fans waking up at 7 a.m. on Saturday. It's youth tournaments in enormous suburban sports complexes. It's the USWNT. College soccer. Sunday leagues. Supporters' groups. Communities where soccer didn't suddenly become popular because the rest of America started paying attention. It's kids wearing Messi jerseys to school and families planning summers around World Cups.

​

It's complicated. A little weird. And very American.

​

That's what makes the next era of the sport interesting.

​

The goal shouldn't be proving that American supporters can recreate what happens in Dortmund, Liverpool or Buenos Aires. We don't have their history and they don't have ours. American soccer has the opportunity to build traditions that future generations will someday inherit without remembering when they started.

 

But that only happens if we give them room to become ours.

​

Learn from the rest of the world. Respect the cultures that built this game long before us. Borrow good ideas when they make sense. But stop treating difference as evidence that we're doing soccer incorrectly.

 

American soccer doesn't need to look like somewhere else to prove that it belongs here. It already does.