andyson:No doubt soccer popularity is on the rise in the US though still lagging behind the 4 major US sports with the general population.
Yeah Football (soccer where you are) is simply not in the way of thinking like it is in the UK. All fair enough as have other great sports, but perhaps difficult to explain just how deep rooted it is in the UK.
Any pub / club / school yard / kids birthday party and the game talk is football almost to the exclusion of all else 99.9999% of the time(no disrespect to North Wales and Rugby Union / other games in general). Bearing in mind England are an important test series against Australia in Cricket (huge if follow cricket and from either place) this link reached via "sports" may allow some clue how big it is:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/index.html
andyson: Fact is, US sports popularity is star based. Each city needs its stars and each sport needs its super-stars
Not that dissimilar although the EPL (leagues exist below) is just the best you can get as a business. As a boy I could ride my chopper bike to a field to watch Bobby Moore train...........gone are the days:)
andyson:
Back to the EPL. US National Team players playing in the English Premier League:
Jozy Altidore, forward for Sunderland
Tim Howard, goalkeeper for Everton
Geoff Cameron, defender for Stoke City
Yep ...excellent players. Look at other the Bundesliga and tiny financially to the Global dominance of the EPL, but being forced to blood more home grown talent means a better national side. Latter is the one thing the EPL does not do, but lets face it that's unimportant to corporate concerns running the EPL.