As soccer continues to grow in America, a great linguistic debate rages on.

Even FC Cincinnati has weighed in.

Many Americans grew up in a world where the name of the game was “soccer.” You played it on a field and you wore cleats as you did it.

But increased exposure to foreign teams, leagues and especially youth coaches has resulted in the proliferation of “British-isms” and other foreign terms into America’s soccer glossary.

Some now substitute “pitch” for field, and “boots” for cleats. And the name of the game? Well, that’s football. In fact, there’s a multitude of Euro-terms that are interchangeable with American verbiage.

The linguistic debate gets some people hot under the collar. The adoption of British-isms and other European terms is sometimes viewed as an exclusionary practice undertaken by pretentious fans. Count NBC Sports commentator Dan Patrick as a member of that camp. For years, Patrick has lobbied his fellow U.S. statesmen to opt for soccer over football. Plenty agree with him.

The debate lives here in Cincinnati, too.

Following a Wednesday training session at Xavier University, The Enquirer asked three FC Cincinnati players – Luke Spencer, Austin Berry, and Australian-born defender Harrison Delbridge – and Head Coach John Harkes to take a position in the great linguistic debate.

The four FC Cincinnati men were asked to choose their preferred words from the following options: soccer or football; fans or supporters; field or pitch; shutout or clean sheet; cleats or boots; game or match; overtime or extra time.

The results? They didn’t agree on a single word in any of the seven categories. Berry even offered an answer in Korean when asked to choose between soccer and football (he previously played in South Korea for FC Anyang).

Here’s how they voted:

Spencer: Soccer; Fans; Pitch; Clean sheet; Boots; Game; Extra time. 

Berry: Chuggu (Korean); Fans; Field; Clean sheet; Cleats; Game; Overtime.

Delbridge: Soccer; Fans; Pitch; Shutout; Boots; Game; Extra time.

Harkes: Soccer; Supporters; Both; Clean sheet; Boots; Match;  Extra time.

Each person had an explanation for why they answered as they did, and explained what influenced their respective soccer glossaries.

Harkes said he incorporates British phraseology when discussing the sport because he was born to Scottish parents, and grew up in the ethnically diverse New York City suburb of Kearny, New Jersey.

“There’s time where you say a term, and everybody kind of looks at you sometimes, but it’s just there. It’s part of the language,” said Harkes.

See each respondents’ explanation of where they learned to talk about soccer/football in the above video.