Just yesterday I wrote in this space that I didn’t care if soccer ever became popular in America. I really don’t. If it does, great. It’ll be like being a Cubs fan during the playoffs, which is equal parts collective joy with — and annoyed anger at — the hordes of faded-cap-wearing bandwagon morons. If soccer doesn’t become popular, fine. I can still watch it and enjoy it myself. Lack of popularity is no more a hindrance to enjoying sports than it is to enjoying music, and I’m not much of a Taylor Swift fan.

That said, it is always good to see little qualified signs of the increased popularity of U.S. soccer and hey, here’s one! It’s not all that exciting. I’ve definitely had more enthralling afternoons. But it does point to some level of heightened awareness of U.S. soccer in the non-World Cup years that really hasn’t existed until recently:

The United States’ 3-2 loss to Brazil in the Confederations Cup final was seen by 3.9 million people on ESPN, the most-viewed non-World Cup game for the American team on the cable network.

ESPN said Tuesday that Sunday’s game received a 2.6 cable rating and was seen in 2.6 million homes. The audience was the third-largest to watch the team on ESPN, trailing the 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Germany at the 2002 World Cup and the 2-1 victory over Colombia in the first round of the 1994 World Cup.

See? I told you that was semi-interesting. It seems people are actually sort of-kind of caring about soccer these days, so long as the game is much-hyped and on during a time (Sunday afternoon, in the summer) when literally nothing else is on TV. Wooo! Your hear that? That’s the tsunami of soccer coming straight for your face, America!