Yes, because the world's third most-populous country, and the world's #1 country in terms of GDP, failed to qualify for the World Cup.
look - i like soccer - as does the younger generations here in bigger and bigger numbers.
but, like, our best athletes don't play soccer. they play football and basketball - because those have traditionally been the sports on TV with the athletes making 40 million dollars a year.
if things were flipped and, say, athletes like Ja Morant, Tyreke Hill, Christian McCaffrey... if they grew up caring more about soccer? we'd wipe the floor with you. case in point - look at our women's team. imagine lebron growing up engrained in a soccer culture? mike trout?
alas, they didn't. because for the most part the population of the third most populous country and worlds #1 country in terms of GDP hasn't given a shit about men's soccer until very recently. honestly - we've performed rather well for a country that doesn't give a shit, to be honest.
but that does appear to be changing. there are more US players in the top levels of european soccer than ever before. MLS is setting attendance records - MLS has tied baseball in terms of popularity amongst american kids and continues to climb. our major TV networks are investing billions for the broadcast rights of the World Cup and Premier League. MLB is so worried that they're trying to shift a game each sunday earlier into the traditional EPL time slot.
oh, and we have the next world cup here - which will only help what is a current soccer surge.
your energy is probably best spent hoping that these trends don't continue vs. making an argument that is roughly akin to me trying to laugh at australia for being bad at baseball.