Go back 30-plus years and take one of those aerial shots above the suburbs of America. Speckled between the garden lawns, you'll find the baseball diamond and the lines of the gridiron.

Flash that camera today and you will also find the markings of soccer fields, lots of them. It is suburbia's most played game.

For some critics, soccer is the most un-American of pastimes. No other sport generates such hatred from its detractors. The xenophobe slams it as alien, the never satiated despise the lack of scoring, and the fans of crunching football tackles deride the soccer wimp writhing on the field crying for Mommy. And yet, soccer is prevailing.

Major League Soccer has completed a successful year and is plotting its move to the post-David Beckham era. The superstar may be playing his last game on American soil as he suits up for the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS Cup final against the Houston Dynamo tonight.

Beckham leaves MLS with attendance at an all-time high - 87 games sold out during the past season, average crowds bigger than those of both hockey and basketball. Revenues have increased despite the tough economic climate, merchandising sales are exploding, TV viewing is up, and NBC and Fox are investing.

Measurably, the Beckham gamble has paid off.

MLS now houses 19 teams and is expanding, and the growth has fueled a genuine soccer fan culture. The Seattle Sounders have fanatical support in the tens of thousands, matching the intensity of European clubs.

Much like the nation's desire to move away from foreign energy sources to keep the lights on, the challenge for the MLS is to produce quality homegrown players to keep fan interest pumping into the game.

U.S. soccer does not possess a true street game like the rest of the world. Suburbia dominates, and college-teams are the traditional path to professionalism.

Enter the soccer academies dedicated to building MLS's future. MLS clubs built these centers of excellence to foster talent from an early age and to keep youth focused on soccer by providing quality technical coaching and nurturing.

More importantly, academies are organized by geographical radius, meaning talented young players without the economic resources to travel the country searching for the path to professional contracts can flourish close to home. The street comes to the academy. European clubs have been utilizing this farm concept for decades with great success.

The future of our league, our franchises and our young players depends on the academy programs, says Bruce Arena, head coach of the Galaxy and former national team coach who guided the United States to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup.

If our clubs throughout the country can get the academy system right and develop young players appropriately, we will not only improve our clubs and league but also improve the United States' ability to compete internationally. Beckham and World Player of the Year Lionel Messi are examples of soccer academy graduates at the top of the sport. Who needs college?

With this fresh field being seeded, the day could come when MLS no longer needs the older herd of players from Europe to feed on its pasture.

MLS will continue to attract star foreign names. This is America, after all: Celebrity is necessary for any sport to rocket. The camera flashes whacking David Beckham at a news conference this past week are a reminder of that.

But the priority for MLS is not to cultivate the vine of stardom. The improvement of the quality of play is the goal, working toward a future where the prospect of younger - not older - talent from overseas wishing to play in MLS becomes reality.

Cross-fertilization will produce a bumper crop of players at home as competition for team places motivates homegrown kids to strive and learn from the soccer networks of other nations.

Global soccer evolves on this principle. America is finally plugged in.

The highly respected coach Arsene Wenger of the English Premier League club Arsenal believes that the future of world soccer is in America. He is not alone.

The day when the United States comes to dominate the world's game is not a fantasy. It is achievable if the domestic game settles and allows the cream to rise to the top.

Maybe then, the xenophobes and soccer haters will be silenced.