Haters will deny this, but kids and pros playing soccer today in the USA is as common as them playing baseball or Fortnite.

For the past 30-ish years, soccer's popularity exploded thanks to the efforts of fans and supporters on and off the field.

With the return of the World Cup to the United States, it's the perfect time to look back on LA's soccer history.

[upbeat music] What do you know about the history of soccer in LA?

-It's growing.

It started a little late probably, but it's growing a lot now.

Have you ever heard of the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League?

Oh, wow.

No, not really.

While variations of soccer-like kicking games existed in the US as early as the 17th century, what we now know and play as soccer made its way from Europe in the mid-to-late 19th century.

Immigrants from across Europe arrived in the US from ports in the northeast, such as Ellis Island, and in the southeast via New Orleans, Louisiana.

In Los Angeles, immigrants from England and Scotland arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to work at the port.

It was arguably these immigrants who began to play informal games of soccer here in Los Angeles.

While the number of amateur teams and leagues also sprang up across the country during this time.

It's a little bit difficult to pinpoint a neat start date.

You see various efforts to build some type of structure, some type of consistency in 1903, 1904.

I would date it probably to around 1907, 1908.

That seems to be the era where we start to see a real drift toward bureaucratization, regular scheduling, consistent teams.

You start to see standings in local newspapers.

The earliest name that I was able to pinpoint was the Southern California Association Football League.

Then at some point thereafter, it became the Southern California Soccer League.

Then it eventually became the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League.

Early on, you had a lot of immigrants from Britain and Ireland playing the game.

They moved west to Los Angeles for various reasons.

You had early teams like the Thistles, the Victorias.

Funnily enough, there was a Los Angeles Association Football Club that would actually play at Agricultural Park.

I do think that there was a sense of wanting to stay connected to one's roots, even though one had immigrated to a new country.

A lot of the players who would play soccer would also engage in other pastimes that were connected to their homeland.

They weren't just soccer players.

They were also cricket players and rugby players.

They were embedded in fraternal organizations.

They were embracing a new country and a new life.

The first 60 years of the Greater LA's Soccer League's era was home to immigrants who built teams for the diaspora communities from where they hailed from.

Teams such as the San Pedro Croats, Maccabee Los Angeles, Homenetmen Armenians, Hungarian Athletic Club, Los Angeles Soccer Club, many others.

[upbeat music] If I were to mention the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League, would you know what I'm talking about or no?

It's not a trick question.

It was a soccer league that existed for 90 years.

Oh, okay.

It was for people who even really supported soccer.

Oh, okay.

While working as an actor, Eric Braeden spent his weekends playing in the Greater LA Soccer League with the Maccabee Los Angeles Soccer Club.

His time with the team was a life-changing experience on multiple levels.

I and a German friend of mine, Michael Meyer, he played midfield and I played defense.

We were asked by a guy called Joe Schwarz, who was Hungarian-Jewish.

He said, "Boys, do you want to play for a team?

I'll pay you $15 a game."

Now, I had been in the country for about two or three years.

I'd just seen a documentary about Nazi Germany, a Swedish documentary called Mein Kampf.

I left Germany in 1958.

At that time, we didn't discuss the Holocaust in school, ever.

How old were you then?

19, 20, 21.

I mean when the war ended, how old were you?

When the war ended, I was four.

Oh, so you have no recollection, really?

Well, yes, bombings every night.

Oh, I have vivid recollections.

If people tell you children don't remember, they do remember.

I was born in 1941.

The hospital I was born in was bombed, smithereens the day of.

The town I was born in, Kiel, on the Baltic Sea, was 98% destroyed.

So we moved to the countryside.

I had not learned about the Holocaust .

We just learned that Germany had lost the war.

The Holocaust was discussed in Germany in the 1960s for the first time.

I had left by that time.

I began to play for the Maccabees.

I now suddenly became aware of all that stuff.

The management of the Maccabees were mostly German Jews.

Fred [?]

Sam [?]

Many of them had numbers on their arms.

I was determined to prove that as a German, I didn't share those feelings.

I'd never heard of them before.

I then made it a mission to play for the Maccabees.

The Star of David on my chest.

During the week, I played Nazis on television.

Combat, [?]

patrol.

To the consternation of a lot of people who couldn't figure this out, and they said, "Wait a minute.

He's German, but he's playing for a Jewish team."

It sounds like it was very important for you to play for the Maccabees after learning what was not-- were the Maccabees founded by German Jewish survivors?

Yes.

I played for them with pride, with a sense of defiance.

I took them from the second division to the first division.

They had divisions in the Greater LA Soccer League?

-Yes.

-Oh, wow.

I will never forget the day in 1973.

My son was three years old then.

My wife was in the stands.

Friends were.

It was packed.

We won the US Championship, the Open Cup, 1973.

Happiest moment of my life.

Nothing like sports.

1960s and 1970s were the league's peak.

Many of the competing clubs also competed in and won the US Open Cup, a national tournament that still exists today.

The US Open Cup is the oldest, most traditional soccer tournament in the United States.

It's open to all clubs, professionals, amateurs, semi-pro teams.

The Maccabees went on to win four more times.

They have won the US Championship, the Open Cup, more frequently than any other team.

Global migratory patterns also changed during this time.

The league's diasporic teams began signing and fielding US-born and immigrant players from other countries.

Immigrants from Latin America joined the Greater LA Soccer League teams before eventually creating their own teams.

If I'm very proud to say that I was born in Mexico and I came to the United States, actually I came to Los Angeles at age 14.

Coming to San Pedro Croats, it was a great experience.

They taught me more of the game.

They helped me to grow up.

The Greater Los Angeles Soccer League was a prelude to soccer in Los Angeles today.

It's very common to see children, teens, and adults play some version of soccer all over the region, including recreational and amateur leagues similar to the Greater LA Soccer League.

We caught up with some of the kids playing soccer today to ask them a few questions like, "Are you ready for the World Cup to come to LA?"

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-I'm excited to see who wins.

My parents are from Mexico and Peru, so I'm going for both of them.

I'm so excited and I really want to go, but you know.

If you want to see more about Southern California soccer, let us know in the comments and be sure to like and subscribe.