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Not threatened but just never got into the sport myself
It definitely has it's share of fanatics in the world as do any sport.
I think one of the differences is that in a lot of countries, soccer/football is THE sport...in the US, we have more sport choices and soccer/football generally isn't in them...but younger kids are playing soccer in bigger numbers than ever before while little league players are dwindling in numbers.
It's a cultural thing.
Plus, in a lot of US sports like baseball and football, you generally need more equipment to play it so it can be prohibitively expensive for those in poorer countries (just like basketball tends to be bigger in poorer neighborhoods as the equipment required to play is cheaper/more readily available).
In Europe, the countries are close enough together, so you can have country rivals. Here, it's about state rivals and the once in awhile rivalries with Canada and Mexico.
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