You are correct with the origins of the sport in domestic England. However, when the English colonials started to propagate, this game was introduced to the colonies. Governors noticed that as the game was introduced to the natives, incidents of raids and overall violence reduced.
A few generations later, the natives started to play more soccer and less of their local games that trained combat skills. This made them more controllable subjects. Other European powers also noticed this and the sport was introduced to pacify the natives in their colonies. Germany, Spain and Portugal were very interested introducing this into South America to reduce rebellions.
In the States, soccer was ignored with the popularity of baseball (very good at teaching hand grenade throwing, ditch diving and hand combat commands) and football (trench warfare, coded signals, enemy deception) to keep a skilled domestic military recruitment pool.
