Soccer may be the world's game, but for much of Major League Soccer's existence, the world only rarely penetrated the U.S. borders, leaving the country's top league a primarily domestic one.
That isolationism is gone now, swept aside by a vigorous internationalism.
This season a majority of MLS players — 50.9% — were born outside the U.S. That has never happened before. And when the Galaxy meets New York City FC on Sunday at a sold-out StubHub Center, the two rosters will include 25 players that came to MLS from foreign leagues.
That's also a league high — though Galaxy midfielder Steven Gerrard suspects that figure will not remain a record for long.