Only a true soccer weenie would get excited about a 2-1 victory by the most powerful nation on earth with a population of 320 million people over a second world country with a population of 3 million people. Think of it this way: The USA has been trying to develop a world class soccer team since the mid-1970's and we probably spend more on soccer at the various levels of play per year (pro, college, high school, and youth leagues) than the entire GDP of Jamaica, and the best we can do is a 2-1 snooze victory.
It’s because our best athletes have many alternatives, like basketball or football. But more and more, as kids see Americans making big money playing overseas, more of our better athletes will start choosing soccer over other sports.
Also, consider that our best player, Pulisic, wasn’t even in the tournament. That is like Argentina trying to play without Messi.
So if one of our US sprinters ever beat Usain Bolt, or anyone from Jamaica, we shouldn’t get too worked up over that either; ok, got it.
I have thought of this as well. I think one reason soccer has not taken off as other sports have in the U.S. is marketing/commercialization. For example, football, baseball, and basketball have natural (game flow induced) and team initiated pauses which perfectly lend the game for marketing goods. Soccer has no time outs and commercial adds are relinquished to announcer input, screen corner images, player uniform appliques, and on the field sideline signage. Many of these can be easily ignored by the audience who has to continually watch the field or risk missing an extraordinary play or a hard earned goal. So, why should businesses spend money advertising through a sport not designed to give them the intended audience’s undivided attention? I think, the business aspect of professional sports has something to do in both the income of the players and the popularity of the sport. And yes, European soccer stars make millions of Euros endorsing products yet the advertisement benefit to the business happens off the field and not during the game (i.e. marketing exploits the popularity of the player not the sporting event itself). Counter example, exorbitant cost of Super Bowl add time.
One more thing, soccer is a sport that just about any able bodied individual can learn and be good. Contrast that with basketball or football where short and small do not make the varsity team or at best get chosen last in the school yard. Additionally, you only need something to kick and some sort of ‘gate’ to play soccer. In my travels, I have seen kids make soccer balls from tree roots, rags, and even rocks. They marveled when we gave them real soccer balls sent from the States. The field can be anything from a street, roof, dirt field, etc. Not so easily done with other sports. The rules are very simple as well. This I think, also helps explains the huge appeal of soccer worldwide. And with a larger pool of participants there is a larger probability of genuine stars to emerge.
I think that any U.S. National team that eventually wins a World Cup (from my keyboard to the Lord’s eyes) will be made of players with predominantly African and Latin surnames either (legal immigrants or first/second generation from legal immigrants) with the occasional European surname (multi-generational U.S. family name) in the mix.