Soccer's popularity growing in U.S.

Will soccer ever become one of the most popular sports in America? Will it ever rival football, baseball or basketball for the sports fans' love, interest and participation?

Those are the questions brought up by Americans who are not big soccer fans.

I would like to look back at the past weekend and one of the biggest days in soccer's short history in the United States.

People always question the fan support of soccer being played on American soil, and this past weekend saw some of the top club teams in the world and both U.S. national teams playing.

ESPN gave the 2009 upset of the year ESPY award to the U.S. men's national team for its 2-0 victory over Spain, the top-ranked team in the world. To back that up, the national team is attempting to win its third straight Gold Cup. The Americans beat Panama in the quarterfinals on Saturday 2-1 in front of a crowd of 31,087.

Two other Gold Cup quarterfinals were played in Texas in front of a crowd of 82,252, for a combined 113,339 attendance at the Gold Cup quarterfinals.

On the women's side, Abby Wambach became the fifth American female ever to score 100 goals on Sunday against Canada with a crowd of 8,433 watching.

Add in the 76,567 that were in the stands to watch the five Major League Soccer matches over the weekend, and we are already looking at close to 200,000 attending a high-profile soccer match this past weekend.

MLS, however, is not going to convert the fans alone, so U.S. soccer has started bringing in top clubs around the world for friendly matches.

Some of the greatest club teams converged on the U.S. for the World Football Classic, a preseason tournament.

England's Chelsea, Italy's AC Milan and Inter Milan and Mexico's Club America will play a round-robin tournament over the next week in venues across the country. The tournament began Sunday with Club America upsetting 17-time Serie A champion Inter Milan in penalty kicks with a crowd of over 30,000 looking on.

MLS is also getting in the mix playing friendly matches with the top clubs.