Will The World Cup Spur More Interest in Soccer in America? [OPINION]

The FIFA World Cup is going on and there has been a lot of talk on Facebook and Twitter about the last game, between the USA and Portugal, that ended in a 2-2 tie. Facebook claims there were 10 million people posting and 20 million interactions during the game and Twitter said there were 8 million tweets about the match. What is more amazing is that in the first week alone, there were 459 millions posts, likes and comments, according to Facebook worldwide for all the games.

I happen to love the game of soccer, I have played it, coached it in Paul Klover and my kids are now involved in both indoor and outdoor soccer. I am left to wonder with these figures, is soccer an up and coming sport that will compete with the likes of Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Associaiton or the National Hockey League.

I highly doubt you'll ever see it where soccer is more loved than any of those throughout the year, but it seems to me, that the Major League Soccer (MLS) needs to capitalize on the World Cup. This league formed after America hosted the World Cup in 1994, so I know that the World Cup can help spur some movement. I will say that soccer fans do show a lot more passion for their teams, as has been demonstrated during the World Cup this year.
I'm going to be curious to see how the Germany vs USA game on Thursday will do with the television ratings and also online. Both of these teams can play for a tie and advance into the knockout rounds, but I'd really like to see USA win this and get a better seeding. On a side note, maybe one day we'll see the World Cup have an overtime period and then penalty kicks to help settle ties.  That's my two cents.