Recently, I got to read an article about Billy Gonsalves, who is considered to be the best soccer player to come from the United States. While learning about his life, I learned something new about the soccer world in the USA. Which was that Fall River, Massachusetts, was one of the biggest centers in the United States for soccer. This center for soccer was created by the large amount of English and Scottish immigrants who would play the sport. It was also the home of a soccer club named Fall River Rovers Club, which either won or were runners up to in the US Open Cup for three years in a row. I never knew about Fall River and its big soccer background; it helped me better understand the origins of soccer in the United States.
While reading the introduction of this article it talked about how, when given the opportunity to vote for the best 11 players in US soccer history, they create a lineup of players all from the last 24 years. I am not very shocked, for most people in this country I do not believe that they know about the origins of the sport in our country. People might watch the MLS now, but they have no idea what soccer was like 100 years ago. This further helped me realize that, at least in the US, there are not many soccer fans who truly understand the full story.
Before reading this article, I will admit I never have heard of Billy Gonsalves. I love watching soccer, but I mostly watch women’s soccer. If I do watch men’s soccer, it is mostly the big cup matches, the Olympics, or if the United States made it deep into a tournament. Reading about Gonsalves made me feel in awe because he was a winner; he knew how to win tournaments. Today, we watch all these professional American players who haven’t won half the number of trophies he has, but we still do not talk about his name. Yes, he was born over 100 years ago, but if you want to truly make a list of the best American players of all time, you need to look through all the players, not just the recent ones that you have more stats on. More people need to learn Gonsalves’s name so that we can have an accurate debate on the best American soccer players.
