High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Sacramento Gold was an American soccer club based in Sacramento, California that was a member of the American Soccer League. Prior to the 1977 season the team was known as the Sacramento Spirits. Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball. It is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the world. The American Soccer League has been a name used by three different professional soccer leagues in the United States. The first American Soccer League was established in 1921 by the merger of teams from the National Association Football League and the Southern New England Soccer League. For several years it was the second most popular professional sports league in the country.