Over 60,000 turned out to watch Motreal Impact and LA Galaxy yesterday.
That game was in Montreal, and therefore is not indicative of the sport's popularity in the US. However, there is no doubt the MLS is attracting a larger crowd these days.
In regards to Canadian soccer and the early discussion about soccer vs. football in Australia, I noticed during my time living in Canada that calling it football did happen in certain contexts. There is a show called "The Footy Show" in Canada that deals with soccer. I think they use "footy" since nobody calls American or Canadian football that.
However, as I said earlier, the game is known as "soccer" in US, Canada and Australia even if there are exceptions like the Football Federation Australia and the MLS teams Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders FC. The term football will probably be used more and more by fans of the sport in these three countries but it will never catch on because of American Football, Canadian Football, and Aussie Rules Football. As long as those games exist it will be soccer in these places, unless another name like "footy" catches on (which in my opinion, reeks of trying-too-hard when used by North Americans)
-I bit off topic, but WHY did anyone think Real Salt Lake was a good name for a team? There is no royalty in Salt Lake City (Unless there is some secret the Mormons are keeping from me) and they don't have an especially high Spanish-speaking population. I get MLS teams wanting to mimic European names with "United" or "FC". But Real?? It just doesn't make any freakin sense!!!