The backstory: European immigrants fueled soccer in L.A. in the early 1900s, and then Spanish speaking immigrants pushed it big in the late 20th century.
Long Beach’s role: The first World Cup qualifying match between the U.S. and Mexico happened in 1958 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach. The U.S. lost, 7-2.
What's next: Historians want to create a physical archive for local soccer history so people can understand how the various L.A. soccer histories interconnect.
World soccer turns its eyes to the Los Angeles area once more as Paris St. Germain and Atlético de Madrid face each other on Sunday at the Rose Bowl.
The match is part of the opening round of the FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament of 32 top club teams from around the world. The full schedule is here.
It’s a taste of the excitement to come during next year's World Cup tournament, when 48 nations will be playing against each other. It's being hosted in the US, Canada and Mexico, and Los Angeles will again be one of the venues.
“FIFA recognizes the financial importance of Los Angeles,” said Daniel Durbin, a professor of sports media at USC.
“You may have financial centers for media in New York, but really the media center of sports is in Los Angeles. It is a dynamic sports media region,” he said, because of Southern California’s large soccer-loving population, its professional soccer teams, and long history of soccer playing here.
Durbin said that history is not as well known or documented as it should be. There’s no soccer museum or formal archives, for example. Durbin attributes that to the region’s tendency to favor the new over the old.
“History has always happened too fast for Los Angeles. We don't look back,” he said.
But some soccer fans and historians in L.A. see the forthcoming club soccer games and next year’s World Cup games in the region as an opportunity to recognize some of that history.
In 1958, the Los Angeles Kickers, a team founded by German immigrants, won their first National Challenge Cup, now known as the U.S. Open Cup
European immigrants, from 1900 on, were key to the formation of formal soccer leagues in L.A. Those leagues included Eastern European, German, and Armenian players and fans.
That changed in the mid-20th century when many more people from Spanish speaking countries migrated to Southern California.
“You can’t tell the history of soccer in L.A. without Mexican and Latin American migrants,” said Romeo Guzman, a historian and co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse.
Through essays and other writing, Guzman has documented the Spanish speaking immigrant roots of soccer. Those roots include weekend leagues in neighborhood parks across Southern California.
Chicharito joins the Galaxy
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Courtesy LA Galaxy
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The 1958 World Cup qualifying match between the U.S. and Mexico at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach was said to have a heavily Mexico-leaning turnout.
That mix led world soccer stars such as British players George Best (arguably the first global soccer mega star in the 1960s and 70s) and David Beckham, along with Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to come to L.A. to play professionally at different times.
Add to that the founding in Torrance in 1964 of the American Youth Soccer Organization, the engine that leads young people to high school, college and professional soccer careers.
“If soccer becomes truly a national sport in the United States, like American football and baseball and basketball, it will owe that to Los Angeles,” Durbin said.
How to remember L.A. soccer history
There used to be a plaque at the L.A. Sports Arena to honor the L.A. Aztecs soccer team that played there in the 1980s. The venue was torn down to build LAFC’s stadium.
But what about a collection of the logos, jerseys and photos of all these old L.A. soccer teams?
“There are archives. They're a little hard to find,” said Ivan Fernandez, an amateur historian and journalist who’s written about L.A. soccer history.
He’s had conversations with others like him, he said, “about hopefully one day trying to get some university somewhere, maybe a coalition of universities to help us build an actual physical archive of not just L.A. soccer memorabilia, but California soccer in general."
For the time being, he’s working on more journalism projects on that local soccer history to be finished right around the time of next year’s World Cup matches in L.A.
