“One of the things that’s more enjoyable is there’s so much they can do to improve the league,” said Addley, who, like his friends, has never seen an M.L.S. match in person.

It is unclear how many British fans follow Major League Soccer. The league does not keep track, and Sky Sports, which broadcasts a minimum of two games a week under a new rights agreement, declined to share viewership numbers.

Still, there is clearly some appetite for American soccer, even if pub owners refuse to turn on the games when East and his friends ask them. East said that their website, which started in May 2014, has received 1.2 million unique visits so far this year. As editor, he directs five volunteers who produce a stream of commentary on M.L.S. and, in a nod to unavoidable passions, the Premier League. (East supports Tottenham Hotspur, while Ashton and Addley root for Arsenal and Chelsea.)

The three soccer savants were active on Twitter during Sunday’s matches, the first of which was a 5-0 whitewash by Columbus. They exchange messages with fans in North America and, much to their delight, have communicated directly with the players, something unheard-of in Britain.

While it is unclear who precisely follows M.L.S. in Britain, the presumption is that many of the fans are millennials, the same demographic that has a lot of followers of the Premier League in the United States. Both sets of young fans gravitate toward fresh content, and thanks to social media and ubiquitous connectivity they can find like-minded fans everywhere.

“Years ago, there was a real intrigue with the N.F.L. in the U.K. and Japan because football personified what America stood for, and big guys, cheerleaders and pomp and mascots spoke to how a guy in London or Tokyo thought about America,” said the M.L.S. commissioner, Don Garber, who once worked at the N.F.L. “But we are a new league for a new America. It’s very young, very global, very digitally connected. Now there’s a perception in the U.K. that that is what they think of America today.”