re: soccer is getting bigger in america...

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I'm afraid that 2018 and 2022 World Cups being on the opposite side of the world may slow up some of the positive momentum here in the States...hope I'm wrong.

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That's a solid point. Honestly, I've never seen excitement like this before. I guess individual cities/team see this for championship games but this is unprecendented in terms of a national level. In Birmingham, Iron City was packed to capacity (1300) two hours before the match on Sunday. I doubt you'd even see that if Alabama or Auburn played for a national title and I bet that was the case at a lot of establishments all over the country. Its easy for the casual fans to turn out when the match is in the afternoon. However, its another thing when it could be on in the middle of the night. So the US needs to capitalize this year.

I agree that once the WC is over, the soccer excitement will die down dramatically. That's why you want to see the US have continued improvement/success in the World Cup. Over time, the passion will carry over to non-WC events. I don't think there's any doubt that soccer is growing in the US.