Rather than focus on USA’s loss, I think having the USA host the World Cup has been a huge success for the country. It has been fun watching the people from other countries react to the food and culture of the USA. The crowds have been great and coverage has been overwhelmingly positive. Hosting the World Cup has done more to promote soccer in the U.S. than anything I can think of, in the past ten years.
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That has definitely been a positive.
There are so many social media videos out there now made by European tourists saying how their trip here for the World Cup has dispelled all sorts of negative stories they had heard about the USA prior to the trip as myths, lies, and fabrications. In fact, many rave about things like free refills, massive portions at restaurants, and stores jam packed with merchandise at good prices.
Nice!
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Americans generally don’t really care about soccer. As far as men’s soccer, it is a fifth-tier sport along with lacrosse, tennis, golf, etc. The top 4 are football, basketball, baseball, and track and field.
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Ice Hockey?
The NHL is one of the “Big Four” pro leagues in the USA, and in NCAA D1, men’s ice hockey is the third highest revenue sport after football and men’s basketball.
Should be ahead of track and field, based on that.
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Track and field is not top 4. I don’t know anyone that watches or cares about it.
Football, basketball, baseball, hockey, NHL, soccer off the top of my head as far as most popular in the U.S.
I had a nightmare we lost 23-4 last night. 
Thankfully I woke and get to watch Messi and 
!!! Real soccer culture!
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Still far too regional. I live 100 miles away from real hockey programs with a real hockey culture from cradle to grave.
Literally does not exist here at all in the slighest. Not even as an extreme niche sport you can pay to do. The Jamaican bobsledding team probably had a much better shot a fielding a competitive olympic team than you do at producing even one decent hockey player around here.
Culture. (As others have said)
On the flipside, along those lines, many people around here take wrestling more seriously than any other sport. Many. From youth on up. Don’t even bother trying to wrestle unless you’re going to make it your life, it’s not going to go well for you otherwise.
Well, yeah.
But in B1G country, which Iowa is a part of, it’s a pretty big deal! Just ask the B1G teams with a squad!
That said, the NHL has proven popular even in the Sun Belt, with teams like Florida, Tampa Bay, Las Vegas, Anaheim, LA, and Dallas either making or winning Stanley Cups.
That definitely makes ice hockey a clear #4 as a spectator sport in the USA, if nothing else.
It gets way better TV ratings than MLS, for what it’s worth.
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It is. Most of my extended family are actually Minnesotans so I’m fairly familiar with it. Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan. Yup. Huge deal for sure.
Not here tho. And people like hockey in Iowa to an extent, there’s just little to no infrastructure for it. I like to watch hockey sometimes.
So i don’t necessarily disagree with you. But it is still very regional and niche. Good in that context for sure.
id love to see an offensive lineman or linebacker try and dribble a ball at full speed…futbol is a hard sport to master, using your feet and legs is a lot more difficult than using your hands, size isn’t everything, see Messi and the Argentinians or the Spanish team…GG USA, i feel like they weren’t ready for the moment, Pulisic was MIA…Mexico at least went down swinging, although towards the end of that match, most of those punches weren’t landing at all…hopefully Argentina gets knocked out today lol
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Sorry, hockey is soccer for men who can’t run. You will notice that I put track and field as a 4th tier sport. You can include hockey if you want.
I’d put track and field well behind ice hockey.
T&F doesn’t draw nearly the same eyeballs, crowds, or sports reporting/media attention.
That looked like Tim Ream conceding that goal.
If Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Steph Curry, etc. all grew up wanting to play soccer and put their passion and athleticism and talent into it, instead of growing up wanting to play other sports, they would have been class athletes at that sport. In England, kids grow up dreaming of playing soccer. In the US, they grow up dreaming of playing in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL etc.
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maybe, maybe not, just because they can dribble and shoot a basketball using their hands, doesnt mean they can do the same with their feet lol, completely different sport and skillset…and i love basketball more than futbol
Those are some of the best athletes in the world, that would be focusing solely on soccer from a young age. With the type of resources and passion that is spent on high school football, basketball, baseball etc. which wouldn’t exist.
maybe, a lot of maybes, Lebron would be an excellent goalkeeper tho lol
I think Lebron would be on the back line. lol
I would actually argue that basketball is harder than soccer. I grew up playing both.
its “harder” because you need height…you dont necessarily require height to be good at futbol…and yes i still play both too