and I'm actually optimistic about the US... we're getting better... and no country has as high a percentage of young kids playing soccer as the US....
I've lived all over the world and I've never seen anywhere but the US where you go out on a Saturday or Sunday and the parks are all full of little kids playing soccer..
the MLS, mediocre as it is, is fairly succesful.. expanding to I think 22 teams.. I think it had like 10 when it started in the 1990s.... Seattle's average draw I think is over 50,000 per home game.. not many teams in the world can say that...