In the last few days there has been a focus on the profile and development of football in America.

The mid to late 1970s were the halcyon days of the North American Soccer League (NASL). That's when global superstars like Pele, Beckenbauer and Cruyff were enticed with big salaries to show their footballing talent to an American audience.

The New York Cosmos were huge, attracting crowds of more than 60,000, and so were the Tampa Bay Rowdies, coached to "Soccerbowl" success by former Charlton Athletic manager Eddie Firmani.

But "soccer" had existed in America for a long time before that.

A widely accepted code of football rules was adopted in 1873, only ten years after the formation of The FA in England. In the same year a team of Englishmen, captained by an Old Etonian, played against Yale University at New Haven and it was a proper 11-a-side match.

It was not until 1884 that a meeting was held in New York to form an American FA. Two years later the United States met Canada in an international fixture and in the 1890s clubs began to spring up in many parts of the country. The Californian FA, one of the soccer strongholds, was established in 1902.

USA reached the World Cup semi-finals in Uruguay in 1930 and memorably beat England during the 1950 Finals in Brazil.

The first major step to introduce professional soccer on a national scale was taken in 1966 with the formation of two Leagues, both with considerable financial backing - the National Professional Soccer League and the North American Soccer League.

These two competitions amalgamated in 1967 to form a 17-team league, the NASL, but the American public remained largely disinterested and most teams withdrew after just one season.

The NASL did take off briefly and an emotional Pele famously spoke to a capacity crowd at Giants Stadium after playing one half for the Cosmos and one for Santos in a farewell match in 1977. Soccer ultimately failed to compete as entertainment with American football, baseball and basketball - but it became very popular in schools.

More than 130 years after those first tentative steps a makeover for American soccer is very much on the agenda.