I enjoyed playing it far more than I enjoyed playing American football. I don’t particularly enjoy watching it outside of national play, much like I don’t like watching almost all of the Olympic sports outside of the Olympics.
I don’t like that our national team is a joke. It’s getting our 4th tier athletes behind American football, basketball, baseball. It’s also getting lower level training worse than those sports and also worse than hockey and the Olympic sports. American youth soccer is a joke compared to countries that take the game more seriously, and until that changes, American soccer isn’t going to improve.
It’s all about the money. When eyeballs get on TV, TV dollars will go up. That will pump more money into the sport and draw better athletes. With more money there will be better coaching and better youth programs. So, with that in mind, I’m perfectly fine with MLS being forced into the national spotlight.
It might not be popular here, but another sport in the US that is that way is auto-racing. Our professional circuits are inferior, and we don’t develop top level drivers. For a country that prides itself on 100 years of automotive innovation, we’re way behind on this one as well.
