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Gov. Phil Murphy Claims New Jersey Is “Soccer Capital of the Country”

by in Sports | April 11, 2023

Red_Bull_Arena_

Empire Supporters Club at opening of Red Bull Arena, photo: Sam Szapucki, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

New Jersey has been notably crushing NCAA Tournament basketball competition lately — this year NJ-based Princeton University and Fairleigh Dickinson outperformed and scored some bracket-busting upsets, adding to the mesmerizing Cinderella story written by St. Peter’s in 2022.

The Jersey hoops threat got to be so strong that crime novelist Harlan Coben recognized a villainous (but virtuous) character when he saw one.

Coben’s tweet below pretty much won the tournament.

But NJ Governor Phil Murphy, who took plenty of pride himself in the NJ hoops March Madness accomplishments, says now it’s on to the next sport for the Garden State, which has long been known as a national soccer hotbed.

[Note: Back in the 70s before the sport had emerged in most of America, international superstars like Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer played at the Meadowlands in NJ in the famous uniform of the Cosmos, seeding the bed for Jersey-bred USWNT scoring legend Carli Lloyd and USMNT icons like Tab Ramos and Claudio Reyna, and on and on.)

Those hotbed days are back, according to Murphy, who announced that the English Premier League’s first-ever pre-season tournament in the United States will feature games in New Jersey this July.

“I’m calling it now,” the Governor writes, “New Jersey = Soccer Capital of the Country.”

Murphy’s boast is a big one — the Premier League Summer Series will feature 6 clubs playing 9 games in 5 cities, only one of which is in NJ — Harrison, home of the Red Bulls. But when Murphy leans on his state’s history, he’s got a legit claim. Some people already say that Kearny, NJ, is Soccer Town USA.