narratives usually centered on melodramatic power
struggles and glamour.
Impact Daytime and prime-time soap operas in the
1980’s relied heavily on romance, action, and glam-
our, representing a significant shift away from ear-
lier eras in the genre. Escapist fare, soap operas
mainly served as glossy entertainment, but the be-
ginnings of more issue-oriented storytelling in day-
time soap operas—especially in terms of homosexu-
ality, interracial relationships, and AIDS—picked up
momentum as the decade moved forward.
Further Reading
Anger, Dorothy.Other Worlds: Society Seen Through
Soap Opera. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press,
- Explores American and British soap operas
and discusses their social significance. Includes
an appendix, “Soaps’ Most Daring Stories [and
the ones where they chickened out].”
Frentz, Suzanne, ed.Staying Tuned: Contemporar y
Soap Opera Criticism. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowl-
ing Green State University Popular Press, 1992.
Collection of essays on daytime soap operas, dis-
cussing topics such as college students’ viewing
habits, early AIDS story lines, supercouples, and
more.
Schemering, Christopher.The Soap Opera Encyclope-
dia. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. Excellent
concise synopsis of the genre as whole, as well as
summaries of every soap opera (both daytime and
prime-time) in the history of the genre, including
such forgotten curiosities as the Christian Broad-
casting Network’s early 1980’s entryAnother Life.
Julie Elliott
See also Dallas;Dynasty;General Hospital; Televi-
sion.
Soccer
Definition International team sport
Professional soccer suffered a setback in the United States in
the 1980’s, when the major league folded in 1984. The Ca-
nadian national team, however, enjoyed a brief highlight by
winning a regional international championship in 1985
and participating in the 1986 World Cup. Throughout the
decade, though, soccer remained a marginal spectator sport
in North America.
In the United States, the 1980’s opened promisingly
for soccer fans, with the North American Soccer
League (NASL) drawing an average of fourteen
thousand supporters for its games. Employing expen-
sive, well-known foreign players, the league modi-
fied international soccer rules to encourage more
goals and to prohibit ties, which were common in
other nations. When top striker Giorgio Chinaglia
scored two goals to lead the New York Cosmos to a 3-0
win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the 1980
Soccer Bowl, the American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) covered the game watched by fifty thousand
fans in the stadium.
Despite this modest success, high spending on
star players’ salaries, rapid expansion, and a lack of
American-born players increasingly endangered the
viability and popularity of the sport. At the end of
the season, three NASL teams folded. The national
team did qualify for the 1980 Olympic Games with
two wins, one draw, and a loss against opponents
Costa Rica and Suriname, but the U.S. boycott of the
Olympics that year deprived the team of its chance
to prove its international mettle. Two years later, the
team failed to qualify for the 1982 World Cup after
losing to Mexico 5-1.
By 1981, the NASL saw an exodus of its European
star players, and game attendance fell, adding finan-
cial strains to the clubs. ABC canceled its contract,
lowering the visibility of the sport. Increasingly, the
Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) was called upon
to pick up the slack, together with college level com-
petition. In 1982, Chinaglia’s goal won the New York
Cosmos its fifth league title in an NASL reduced to
fourteen teams. Lack of quality players, fewer fans,
and a salary war with the MISL weakened the league.
On the other hand, U.S. collegiate soccer teams en-
joyed growth, especially women’s teams.
In 1983, the idea to let the national team com-
pete in the NASL as Team America failed abysmally,
as players showed little inclination to leave their
clubs for it. While the Tulsa Roughnecks beat the To-
ronto Blizzard 2-0 to win the championship, the
league experienced a financial crisis. In the 1984
Olympics, the U.S. national team defeated Costa
Rica 3-0 in Stanford, California, on July 29 in front
of seventy-eight thousand spectators, the biggest
soccer audience ever in the United States. Italy then
defeated the team 1-0, and Egypt tied it 1-1, prevent-
ing the United States from advancing beyond the
first round. The same year, the NASL folded, andThe Eighties in America Soccer 887