For all the scratching and clawing MLS and US Soccer has done, this story underlines how important simply having a league – be there – is to American soccer’s success.

With all the kids that play the game in this country, we’ve all talked forever about how huge the game will be in the next 10,20,30 years etc. That may never happen, but having young kids know American Professional Soccer as a norm is the biggest factor of the sport’s growth.

I was 14 years old during the ’94 World Cup. Just being able to see games on TV and attend them in person was what hooked me. Before that, professional soccer, American or otherwise was an abstract concept.

There’s no magic bullet that will cause soccer to make ‘The Leap’ in the US. That next level is simply going to come through matriculation. For the past 15 years kids can turn on the TV or attend a game and say, “I want to be that guy. I can see myself as that guy. I want to play like that guy. I want to be on that team. I identify with this sport and that team. I want it to do well.”

We won’t get them all of those kids. Some of them will continue to view soccer as something you do between seasons to stay in shape, but eventually enough of them will become evangelical like Robert and then finally we’ll reach a tipping point.

To put it another way: Like that old saying, “Half of life is just showing up”… most, if not all of soccer’s success in this country is going to come from the sport simply showing up.