Ok, I don't know if this question has been asked before but here goes:
Who cares how popular soccer is in America? Before someone answers "obviously you do since you commented on it" let me expand my idea.
I'm an American, born and raised. Most of my friends are American, born and raised. There are some who have followed sports their whole lives, some who have only recently begun following sports more closely OUTSIDE of the usual finals seasons (such as myself), and some who don't follow any sports as all. All of us seem to get along with our lives just fine and aren't probably going to move their opinions one way or the other.
Now, I enjoy watching soccer. I can't speak for anyone else, but I absolutely love the sport. I have so much admiration for people who can basically run for 90 minutes straight, with only a 15 minute break during half-time, basically coordinating a ball with every single body part BUT your arms and hands. There are no time outs, no times during the game where you can make plays, but just pure on the spot action the whole way. The individual players have A LOT more autonomy in soccer than I feel do in a lot of other sports.
This doesn't mean I don't enjoy other sports either. I'm a HUGE basketball fan (if you see all the Lakers gear I own....), a HUGE American football fan, and enjoy playing baseball for fun. You see, there's nothing mutually exclusive from stopping me enjoying other sports while enjoying soccer. I would've played more soccer as a kid, but I was too fat to run and now I'm too old.
Do I wish soccer was more popular in the US? Sure, because it will expand our pool of talent on the worldwide level, giving America even more pride in how great this nation is.
Do I think its necessary for my own or anyone else's own personal enjoyment to care how popular soccer is in the US? Not really. I'll still enjoy the game whether or not its mainstream in the US.
You see, in America we have this thing called freedom of choice. We can watch soccer because we have the freedom to. Come July 4th, I will be celebrating Independence Day along with most other Americans. The reason why we ARE Americans is because of the freedom it entails. If you don't like soccer, you can simply not watch it. For those who want to enjoy the game, you have every single right to.
Saying that we're anti-American somehow by enjoying this game, well...tough luck. There's really nothing you can do about it to make us NOT watch the game.
That's the beauty of our country.
If you don't like soccer, then there's really nothing from stopping you from changing the channel. It's really that simple.
/end rant