Soccer Isn't a Big Deal Here

US Women's soccer team has relied on numerous players this year, but one that has highlighted the field has been Cuban descent player, Amy Rodriguez.

The 24-year-old forward also known as 'A-Rod' has amazed many with her the impressive techniques. She first joined the U.S. Women's National Team for the 2005 Algarve Cup and was the only high school player on the roster.

The 2008 Olympic gold-medalist went on to become the top draft pick in the Women's Professional Soccer draft, selected by the Boston Breakers, and currently plays for the Philadelphia Independence.

Rodriguez, believes that fans of soccer will appreciate the talent of the women¿s team and that might translate to more interest in the domestic league.

But there's too much stubborn clinging in the U.S. to the idea that the worthiness of a sport is equal to the size of its audience, and in particular, its television ratings. If you're not drawing big numbers like the NFL, if you're not famous enough to sit in a director's chair the Greenwich Boys & Girls Club to announce your next job, you're supposedly outside the Zeitgeist. (Hockey is often diminished as unpopular in the United States, too, which must have been news to the million or so lunatics who lined up in Boston to watch the Stanley Cup parade.)

Why is mass appeal essential to some people's appreciation of a sport? In other cultural arenas, we're eager to prove ourselves as niche cool hunters: seeking out restaurants that others can't get into; raving about television shows like "Breaking Bad;" clicking around Pitchfork.com for the next alterna-genius. Many of us thrive upon being early adopters; the second everyone else likes it, we drop it altogether (Weezer; Ryan Gosling; Brooklyn).

Besides, the whole soccer-isn't-big-here argument can no longer blithely shout over the fact that the sport is massive almost everywhere else on the planet. These days you can't dismiss the rest of the earth as if it was Carl, the crazy guy talking about Lionel Messi in the office kitchen.

To draw geographic borders around a sport in the 21st century, in an era where you can watch cricket on streaming video and follow the Tour de France on your phone, is outmoded and narrow, like believing that Dirk Nowitzki didn't play basketball until he entered Texas. Today, every sport is everyone's, everywhere. (Where will Kobe Bryant possibly spend his an NBA lockout? Asia.)

Another U.S. World Cup victory won't provoke an instant soccer revolution and transform Wambach and Hope Solo into Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. But it's silly to consider that a letdown. This U.S. women's team has been everything a sports fan could ask: thrilling, resilient, unselfish, successful. What's more.