Lemme put it to you this way- if we hated soccer why would there be thousands of youth leagues, thousands of high school teams, hundreds of college teams, and a decent national team who is one of the best in the North and Central America region?
Truth is Americans don't hate soccer...it is under-appreciated but it is NOT hated.
You're dead right.
I think soccer is in really good shape in America, because it has developed roots and an identity and isn't trying to jump to where it can't get organically. It isn't competing with Baseball/Football to be "America's game" and it isn't just focused on a professional league operating as a spectacle for fans. There are all of these different dimensions -- youth soccer, women's soccer (where the U.S., of course, is a world power), pro leagues, expats and ethnic groups following soccer in their homelands, casual fans who follow soccer teams in other countries (chiefly, the Premier League), as well, as you say, as a very decent national team.
All of which is a huge contrast to when I first came to the U.S.
I spent a year here in 81-82. A friend of mine played softball on the field by Harvard Stadium on Saturday mornings and I went along with him one Saturday, thinking I might do a bit of jogging. Anyway, there was a pick-up game there which, apparently, had been going on week in week out for about ten years. I joined up and became a regular. It was 85% foreigners or "New Americans" -- English, Italians, Brazilian, Argentinian, Mexican. The couple of Americans who came regularly were nice guys and very athletic but, to be honest, they had no technique and no idea of the subtleties -- they tackled like linemen rushing the quarterback! That's all changed.
(One of the guys told me that the high point of the game was that one week Eusebio had come and joined them when he was playing for the New England Teamen. OK, he may have been about 40, but still ... :youtheman
