It's Coming Home: Matthew McConaughey Expects The World Cup To Be So Successful That Soccer Becomes The 3rd Most Popular Sport In The US

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[Source] - McConaughey pointed to the influence of the 1994 World Cup in launching MLS and said he expects soccer to become the country’s third most popular sport behind football and basketball.“So many casual fans are about to become rabid fans of this beautiful game after the World Cup,” the Oscar-winning actor said.

“I think this World Cup is going to do more for MLS soccer than anything has.”

You hear that baseball, hockey and golf? Your ass is firmly in the jackpot. I'm not going to argue against Matthew McConaughey, who clearly is a good side to be on. But, look, I'm not dumb here. I know we're not going to get soccer to number 3 unless we win the damn thing. I love soccer, my kids play soccer, I played soccer my whole life, it's in my blood to love it, but even I know it's not going to jump because of hosting the World Cup, kinda. I say kinda because we're not even hosting the whole World Cup! Games are in Mexico and Canada too, which just feels wrong. If we're going to host the World Cup, we need it all in the US. 

Of course it will help the MLS, in the sense of players getting a chance to play on the world stage. But, we've heard this forever. We've heard how soccer is coming and while it's grown massively over the years, baseball is baseball. 

You can't pass America's pastime, no matter how successful you are. It's just one of those things with America like apple pie and dominating the Olympics. Obviously I'm biased here, but I think it'd be hilarious if the US 'didn't care' about soccer and ended up being good. We should be better than that we are currently, that's not a secret. We never built off the momentum of 2002 when we made the quarterfinals and never got back to that again. But if this group can somehow make a run and outdo England? Joel Embiid would need an apology at least: 

I still think the key for MLS to grow is 1) go back to awesome team names like Tampa Bay Mutiny instead of just being FC whatever and 2) bring back the best penalty kicks known to man: 

It's coming home.