of course, you know that we got the term "soccer" from England. Soccer is from the Football Association, which led to the term "asoccer," which was further shortened to "soccer." Football was originally any sport with the players on foot. Rugby Football Union was football, too. The term "soccer" was common in England, perhaps not prevalent, up until the mid-20th century. It's largely the non-English world that went straight to "futbol," probably because rugby didn't catch on, and the English gradually conformed. The linked article says "soccer" was popular in England in the 1950s due to the presence of GIs but fell out of favor by the 1980s in part due to objection to US influence.
https://time.com/5335799/soccer-word-origin-england/
I'd be curious if articles around 1966 used the term "soccer." TBH, I knew some English camp counselors who played in the early 1970s (one played second division) and they never used the term soccer. I recall talking to one of them when he asked for the "football" field and I steered him to a small field at camp we called the football field rather than the bigger soccer field.
More links:
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2783,00.html
https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-some-people-call-football-soccer
Edit - Britannica says that soccer is more common in countries where other types of football are common, such as Gaelic Football, Aussie Football, Canadian (gridiron) Football, and of course the US.
The simple version is this: each country uses the generic term "football" for its predominant version of the sport, most of which were derived from association football, rugby union football or rugby league football. Insisting that the U.S. is somehow "wrong" for its usage is at best misguided. If so, the English are just as "wrong" for using football to mean association football, to the detriment of rugby.
