Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer

LANGLEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA - APRIL 29: A detailed view of a soccer ball is seen before the Players Voice Panel Education Session as part of the 76th FIFA Congress on April 29, 2026 in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Photo by Elizabeth Ruiz Ruiz - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) | FIFA via Getty Images The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that.

Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America , a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States. Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.

S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.

Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U. S. Soccer .