Why is U.S. soccer scared of playing in the winter?

Soccer should be played in the winter

I’ve been coaching soccer since 2013 and the one thing that I’ve wondered over the years is why is soccer in the United States only considered a fall and spring sport?

Most high schools within the U.S. only play in the fall, while others play in the spring and there seasons are very short, spanning from September until October with the playoffs going into November sometimes. The league that I coach in only plays in the spring and fall as well.

Then of course you have Major League Soccer, the top pro league in the U.S. that runs from March through November. Their regular season actually ends in October, but the playoffs and championship extends everything through November.

So why are Americans so scared to play soccer in the winter when the top leagues in the world like La Liga in Spain, the English Premier League in England and so on play from August through May?

I know what you’re thinking, ‘Paul are you stupid? There’s no way you can play soccer in the United States in the winter because the weather is too brutal with snow and temperatures in places like Colorado and Minnesota below freezing.’

You have a point, but there’s a country in the world that plays soccer from August to May that has weather as brutal as the United States’ and that country is Russia. So there are ways around bad winter weather.

First off, Russia at one time used the same calendar as the MLS, but they knew that in order for them to be taken seriously within the world of soccer they had to change things and go along with the other top countries in Europe.

Starting back in the 2012-13 season the RPL changed their calendar and included a three month winter break from mid-December until mid-March. You can argue that this is the same calendar that MLS uses and it is. They play during the same months as MLS, except they avoid June and July and their season ends in the spring, not in the fall. Everything lines up with the top leagues.

I think a lot of people don’t realize that soccer is a sport that is meant to be played in the winter, there is a reason that every league changes over to a “winter ball” during the cold months. In case you didn’t know the yellow or orange ball that is used during the cold months is a winter ball and it’s used in case it snows so the players can see if easier while playing.

The good news about soccer is that it’s been growing in the United States quite a bit over the past several years. Hopefully things will change and the powers that be will realize that the way they do things isn’t necessarily right, like not having promotion and relegation. But that’s another article.