Football and futbol have not always coexisted so amicably in the United States, but the two sports seem to be getting along better than ever. Fewer football fans chide soccer as glorified kickball and fewer soccer fans badmouth football as a brutish game played by knuckle draggers.
In thousands of small- and medium-sized communities, football and soccer are neighborly. In dozens of metropolitan areas, the two sports not only tolerate one another but applaud each other’s successes at the highest levels.
That said, it remains relatively uncommon for large cities to excel in both football and soccer. Rare is the Gotham that can celebrate championships in both sports.
Fortunately for Columbus, the Arch City is one such place. The Crew have won two MLS titles the past four years and three overall. The Ohio State Buckeyes are perennial College Football Playoff participants who last won a national title in 2014 and played for one in 2021.
Columbus, in fact, ranks No. 3 on our list of top-10 soccer-football cities.
The criteria: we gave greater weight to recent success, though historical excellence matters; tallied championships and title appearances; and docked cities for having only one of the two sports in a place of prominence. For example, Portland has won two MLS Cups since 2015 but has no college or professional football team of significance.
1. Los Angeles
The City of Angels wins the prize based on its combination of recent and historical success. The Galaxy won five MLS titles between 2002-2014, while LAFC won in 2022 and lost to the Crew in the title game last year. In football, Southern California and UCLA have not exactly lit it up over the past decade, but the Rams won the 2022 Super Bowl and played for the title in 2019.
2. Seattle
The Emerald City gets the runner-up nod over Columbus because it has two championship-caliber football teams: the NFL Seahawks and Washington Huskies, as well as the Sounders, who have won two MLS Cups (2019 and 2016) and finished runners-up twice (2017 and 2020). The Seahawks won the 2014 Super Bowl and appeared in two others, while the Huskies just played for the CFP national championship, losing to Michigan 34-13.
3. Columbus
The Crew is the hottest team in MLS, having outscored its past five opponents 20-2. The defending MLS champions also won the Cup in 2020 and 2008 and finished runner-up in 2015. Ohio’s capital doesn’t have an NFL team, but the Buckeyes are a fair facsimile, especially in the new payment era of name, image and likeness. Ohio State owns six national titles and has made the playoff five of 10 seasons. OSU also has the all-time highest winning percentage (.734) in FCS.
4. Kansas City
You could argue KC deserves a higher ranking based on the Chiefs winning three Super Bowls the past five seasons (2020, 2023-24) as well as playing for the title in 2021, but it takes two sports to tango, and Sporting KC has been too inconsistent to register a higher spot. The MLS franchise won the Cup in 2013 and 2002, the latter when the team was called the Wizards. But the soccer side of the equation puts KC behind Columbus.
5. New England (Foxboro/Boston)
Two names: Tom Brady. Bill Belichick. Without them, Beantown would be farther back in this pack. The Patriots won six Super Bowls wins with Brady at quarterback and Belichick as coach, but they have not played for the title since 2019, and this list leans heavily toward what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? The Revolution have never won an MLS Cup in five tries.
6. New York
It’s been more than a decade (2012) since the Giants won their fourth Super Bowl, and longer (1969) for the Jets, which means it was up to the soccer teams to get the Big Apple into the top five. Didn’t happen. New York is 0-2 in MLS finals (New York FC lost to Portland in 2021 and the Red Bulls lost to the Crew in 2008).
7. Philadelphia
The race for 7-10 is tight, but Philly gets the nod here because the Eagles won the 2018 Super Bowl. Sure, the Union have never won an MLS Cup (like No. 8 Real Salt Lake), but did play for the title in 2022, losing to LAFC.
8. Salt Lake City
This is more than a one-horse town. The 1-2 punch of Real Salt Lake (2009 MLS Cup winners; 2013 runners-up) and the Utah Utes help put Salt Lake on the top-10 map. The Utes are 162-75 (.684) under coach Kyle Whittingham and won at least a share of the the Pac-12 South in three of the past four seasons.
9. Houston
The land of deep oil wells and deeper pockets needed C.J. Stroud to make the list. The former Ohio State quarterback has made the city’s NFL franchise relevant again, and while the Texans have not made a Super Bowl, Stroud gives them a fighting chance to get there. The Dynamo are nothing special anymore in MLS, but used to be. Houston won consecutive Cups in 2006-07 and played for the title in 2011-12.
10. (tie) Cincinnati, Miami
We flipped a coin to decide which city makes the grade, but the coin landed on its edge, so call it a tie. In football, the Bengals have played in (and lost) three Super Bowls, most recently in 2022 with Joe Burrow running the show. The Queen City also has the Bearcats, who made the four-team college playoff in 2021. As for soccer, Cincinnati FC is relatively young, having joined MLS in 2019, but has become a force in the league, despite not yet advancing to the Cup. Cincy leads MLS with 48 points. Inter Miami has Messi, plus two Super Bowl titles with the Dolphins (1973-74) and five national championships with the Hurricanes (1983, ’87, ’89, ’91, ’2001).
roller@dispatch.com
