American soccer champions

The American soccer champions are the annual winners of the top soccer leagues in the United States. The United States lacked a consistent, multi-division soccer system until recently. Consequently, the selection of a national champion has been problematic at times. For example, the United States did not have a truly national league until the North American Soccer League in the late 1960s. Before that, the U.S. had several regional and city leagues of various levels of quality. For example, while the American Soccer League is considered here as the de facto national league, teams from the St. Louis Soccer League and St. Louis Major League regularly defeated the best the ASL had to offer. While the creation of the NASL in 1968 brought a bona fide, national first division league to the U.S., its collapse in 1984 saw a return to the fragmented league structure. The merger of the Western Soccer League and American Soccer League created a new national league, but not until the establishment of Major League Soccer in 1996 was there again a truly national, first division U.S. league. During those years in which the U.S. league system was fragmented, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was used to determine the national champion.

For consistency, leading scorers are based on goals, not points, as the recording of assists did not begin until the 1960s.

Outdoor champions

National Association Football League I (1895-1899)

* The league began to collapse in 1932. While it continued to play into the Spring of 1933, records no longer exist for final team standings. [ [http://www.sover.net/~spectrum/year/1933.html U.S. Soccer History - 1933] ]

American Soccer League II (1933-1983)

Western Soccer Alliance (1985-1989) /Lone Star Soccer Alliance (1987-1992) /American Soccer League III (1988-1989)

* In 1985, several independent teams on the west coast formed the Western Soccer Alliance. Dedicated to fiscal austerity, it succeeded where the United Soccer League, founded the same year, failed. In 1987, the Lone Star Soccer Alliance imitated the success of the WSA in creating a viable regional league. In 1988, the third version of the American Soccer League, was established as a regional, east-coast league.

=American Professional Soccer League / A-League (1990-1996)=

* In 1989, the Western Soccer League and the American Soccer League champions played each other for the first national champion since the end of the North American Soccer League.

* In 1990, the two leagues merged to form the American Professional Soccer League.

=Indoor champions=

North American Soccer League (1975-1976, 1979-1982, 1983-1984)

Continental Indoor Soccer League (1993 - 1997)

References