PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. — In May 1989, as I sat in the sparsely filled stands at a local college in Southern California, I pondered the future of football, or soccer in the United States, while watching my national team play Trinidad and Tobago in a World Cup qualifier. The match took place during the dark ages of U.S. soccer — after the 1984 collapse of the North American Soccer League and before Major League Soccer began in 1996. The future of soccer in the States largely rested on the team qualifying for the Italy 1990 World Cup and successfully hosting the competition on our home soil in 1994.

In the past two decades, soccer has not only arrived in the States, but is thriving. There is no doubt about it — the United States has embraced soccer. Record numbers of U.S. Americans watched the Brazil 2014 World Cup with overall television viewership up 44% since 2010, making the United States the second largest overseas television audience after Germany. Approximately 25 million people watched the States play against Portugal, an amount that exceeded the average viewership for the World Series and NBA finals. In addition to viewing the matches on television, this World Cup became the most streamed sporting event ever in the United States with over 30 million hours logged. But the fandom doesn’t stop there — apart from Brazilians, more World Cup tickets were purchased by U.S. Americans than by anyone else.

The growing U.S. American interest in soccer is not surprising. A recent ESPN Sports Poll Annual Report noted that Major League Soccer, not just soccer in general, is on par with Major League Baseball among young avid sports fans. Future popularity will increase as time goes by; the average age of baseball fans is 53, while those who prefer soccer, by contrast, average only 37.

Hand in hand with the growing U.S. spectator interest in soccer is the improved quality of the U.S. national soccer team. Although once thought of as a team in over its head, the team has participated in seven consecutive World Cups and advanced from four of the last six groups, a feat that has eluded soccer powers such as the Netherlands, France and Mexico. Advancing from the group stage is never easy — just ask Italy, Spain or England — and this year’s advancement from the “Group of Death,” which included eventual champion Germany, is evidence of the States’ progression over the last 20 years.

Soccer culture is changing in the United States and, to some people, this threatens U.S. American exceptionalism. However, kids from the States, just like those around the world, wear the jerseys of Messi, Neymar and Muller. In the past few weeks, they have been sporting James Rodriguez’s name on their backs in support of the young Colombian star playing in this year’s World Cup. Perhaps one day, those outside the States will be seen wearing New York City FC jerseys. Soccer is a wonderful vehicle for bringing the world together. For young U.S. American sports fans, it connects them to the rest of the world.

The question of football succeeding in the States is not a matter of another World Cup on U.S. soil, or Major League Soccer rising from its rank as the seventh best league in the world or even the States winning a FIFA trophy. What matters is football’s potential in connecting us in deeper and more meaningful ways. The younger generation of U.S. Americans embraces global interdependence — with soccer as a format.

Back in 1989, I did not fully appreciate the importance of the match I was watching, nor did I envision how globally interdependent we would become.  The late Nelson Mandela articulated it best when he said: “Sport has the power to change the world… It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”  I guess these are some of the reasons why they call soccer a “beautiful game.”