I definitely agree with a lot of what you’re saying. We have come a long ways as far as soccer popularity as a Country but like yourself I’ve been involved in soccer for a long long time ... I played big time travel soccer when the players got recruited to play and didn’t have to pay upwards of 10k a year to play...I went to college on a soccer scholarship, my daughter and son turned down college offers, my son played on a 3 peat Indiana State Cup Championship team, my daughters travel team played in Europe for 2 weeks, my nephew ( last name) played for the DA, IU, NY Red Bull’s, and now Indy 11 , and several other nephews either played or turned down college offers .. soccer has been in my family for almost 40 years and while I do see us getting better at soccer, I do not see us getting better because of our style of play. Plain and simple better athletes are playing the sport now than in the past, but as a Country from the ground up we still are teaching our kids to play a style of soccer that won’t consistently win against a team that possesses the ball 70-80% of the game and gets the ball in the attacking third under control 2-3 times as much as we do. The OP said it best, Americans (fans) want results - in other words they want goals being scored. Most ( I think you and I are different ) would rather see us win 7-5 and posses the ball 10% of the game , whereas I would rather win 1 nil and possess the ball 70+ % of the game