It makes sense to the rest of the world, perhaps. Americans are not used to this. Maybe that'll change now that we have MLS but so far it's still a niche sport and we are only paying attention to the world cup every four years (well, we didn't watch it in 2018 because USA did not qualify).
We still watched in 2018. MLS has been growing steadily since its beginning in the 90’s. Yes, it is niche still, and I can hardly believe how many cities have teams now. What are we up to, 30 teams? I haven’t paid close attention in the last few years. One son is pretty attentive to it, though, so I’m sure he knows the answer. (Or I could look it up, but not going to.)