Excitement is building around the women's chances in the World Cup, as the defending champion United States routed Thailand 13-0 Tuesday afternoon.

The buzz helps the business of soccer in the Capital Region, because both men's and women's soccer are big for fans and players alike.

“I always think when you have the national team playing, especially the women's team, it gets more and more people wanting to play,” said Afrim’s General Manager Ross Cardinell.

Cardinell says getting kids involved is key, because enrollment for the girls' and women's teams the past few years has been a little unusual.

“Right after the World Cup, there's always a large uptick of enrollment when it comes to girls soccer,” Cardinell said. “And right now, I think the community needs it because we're noticing at the younger ages — the U-10s and the U-8s, there are less girls participating.”

And usually there's higher enrollment for girls under 10 and lower enrollment for teens. Cardinell says many of the great coaches who used to be involved with the younger kids, are now coaching for the teen groups, which could be part of it.

“So at the U-14, U-16, the high school aged group, there's a lot of teams, and it's not just the premier teams, but these town teams, which is fantastic,” Cardinell said. “[Because] it used to be about 14-15 year-olds, there wouldn't be enough kids to put a team together and now we have a lot of those older teams.”

For coaches and staff, getting to watch the kids grow up playing is part of the fun, but for the kids, seeing the U.S. women's team in the World Cup gives them something to aspire to.

“They're all picking their countries and ... the boys, the girls, everyone's really getting excited about it,” Cardinell said.

Sunday, the U.S. women take on Chile at noon. Afrim’s is hosting watch parties for each American game, with indoor and outdoor seating, food and drinks, cornhole and access to the turf fields.