I love these threads every World Cup. The same things always come up:
1 - There are a few people that have an irrational hatred of the sport and go out of their way to bash it every four years.
2 - The progress of the sport in this country is ignored because it hasn't become as popular as the NFL.
3 - There are inevitably suggestions to change the rules of the game, usually made by the people who have also stated that they'll never watch an MLS game.
There's obviously been a ton of progress in the sport over the last two decades in our country. In 2002, the majority of people didn't even know the Cup was going on -- now, it is advertised and shown everywhere you look. The MLS has greatly increased it's quality of play and has made some very smart expansion moves. The league will only continue to improve with the new development academies and uber-rich investors.
Right now it's an exciting time to be a soccer fan in the states. 15 years ago, there is no way that players like Maurice Edu, Michael Parkhurst, Landon Donovan, Clarence Goodson, or Brad Evans get cut from the national team. The next step is having players like Bradley being the standard for even making team, not being the guy running show.
Will soccer ever surpass football, basketball, baseball, or hockey? Who knows, but the great thing about this country is that, with a third of a billion people and an enormous economy, it doesn't need to surpass any of them, we can support more major league athletics. But there's a reason that the sport is far and away the most popular sport in the world. 90 years ago, people probably didn't think baseball would overtake boxing, 70 years ago, people didn't think football would overtake baseball, and 30 years ago no one had any idea that NASCAR would be as immensely popular as it is now. The landscapes change and I think that soccer in this country is on a great trajectory.
