Importance arrives at varying rates. Sometimes, it can only be seen after many years, as hindsight comes into focus. Importance can also appear nearly instantaneously — sometimes you just know something is a big deal the very moment you experience it. The past decade of American soccer has featured events on both sides of the spectrum; huge goals and shocking news events, but also slower, structural changes off the field that had a material impact on the way we experience the sport in this country.



This past week, writers and editors on our staff — Alexander Abnos, Felipe Cardenas, Meg Linehan, Pablo Maurer, Brooks Peck, Matt Pentz, Jeff Rueter, Adam Snavely and Sam Stejskal — were asked to name their own top 10 most important moments in the past decade of American soccer. Those votes were then compiled, weighted (a No. 1 vote is worth more than a No. 6 vote, for example), and used to create the ranking below.



If the end result says...