Whenever there's a big soccer event for this country, someone somewhere will blurt it out: "Soccer will never be big in the United States."

I might have been convinced if this were still 1998. But times have changed - and you can look at the ratings of the Women's World Cup as evidence that, although soccer may never be the top sport in the U.S., it's no longer greeted with apathy by this country's sports fans.

The World Cup is a big deal to more than just soccer aficionados.

The interest this year was widespread.

According to Twitter, the quick-form social media company, the number of tweets per second during the women's World Cup final was 7,196. That's the most ever for any event - including the world championship of that other kind of football.

But you don't need numbers to get a good grasp of how soccer is finally carving its way into the U.S. sports market.

You can look at me instead.

I used to hate soccer.

That wasn't unusual for a kid growing up in the rural United States. Nobody in my area played growing up, unless they grew up somewhere outside of Harnett County.

It was the only sport I ever tried to play but liked less afterward.

And, yes, a lot of that was due to how awful I am at kicking anything - football, kickball, rocks, you name it.

It was hard to learn to love a sport when your efforts to learn more about it are shot down. Anytime I had a question or comment about the sport, it was dismissed as if I had just said "what if the NFL got rid of quarterbacks?"

Those soccer snobs were no fun.

But once I quit relying on others to help me establish my own fandom, the more I loved soccer.

I covered soccer in college and do here as well. That helped me appreciate it.

Even if it wasn't my favorite sport to watch, I learned the jargon and was eventually able to comfortably dissect a game without hesitation.

At that point, I was more soccer reporter than fan. I hadn't yet had that true fan experience needed to win someone over.

Then came the 2010 World Cup, the men's tournament.

I felt the rush of each scoring chance, gasped at every brilliant move, went wild with each U.S. goal and realized - kind of - how folks in other countries can riot over a thing like this.

Those who doubt soccer's importance in the U.S. will probably say that this latest rash of soccer fever will fade away.

And to some extent, they're right. It's ridiculous to think that everybody who enjoyed the World Cup is planning on buying tickets to see a Women's Professional Soccer league team or will watch Major League Soccer games that are well outside their market.

But they might take notice when the U.S. team is playing in another tournament, like I did with this year's Gold Cup.

Or they could buy a video game and play it until your fingers hurt, which I've done.

And from that, eventually pick out favorite MLS and European teams, as I've done.

Yes, I used to hate soccer.

But that isn't me anymore.

I've gone from soccer-curious to soccer fan in the matter of two years.

And isn't that the kind of growth the sport was looking for in the first place?