I am a devoted American sports fan who always looks forward to the World Series and Super Bowl. My boyhood memories include Carlton Fisk’s Game 6 homer off of Fenway’s foul pole, the Vikings’ Purple People Eater defense, the voice of NFL films narrator John Facenda – who could read a grocery list and make it sound like Armageddon - and the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid. However, over the past few years, another major sport has found its way into this heart that bleeds stars and stripes: international football, a game that we Americans refer to as soccer. I prefer to call it international football out of respect for the skill of its players, the passion of its fans, and the universal popularity that it owns. For the sake of brevity here, however, I will call it soccer.

Regretfully, I must admit that I never played this game growing up. My heroes were major league baseball players like Harmon Killebrew, Carl Yastrzemski and Brooks Robinson, the latter a high school classmate of my mother’s. Dad watched their adventures on TV every night, and I followed his lead. Yes, soccer looked interesting, but this young Yank never saw it save for an occasional big match that ABC’s Wide World of Sports televised once in a blue moon. Pele was a great player, to be sure, but there were no soccer cards to be found at Don’s Kwik Shop in Minneapolis.

So what attracted me to soccer? Compared to baseball and American football, it seems ridiculously simple. Two 11-man teams face each other on a flat pitch. The game’s only object is to kick a round ball into the other team’s goal (or "onion bag," as ESPN commentator Tommy Smyth refers to it). How is that more fascinating than home runs, three-hit shutouts, 80-yard kickoff returns and quarterback sacks? And what fans are more colorful than the Browns’ "Dog Pound," the Packers’ "Cheeseheads" and the Steelers’ hardhats with their Terrible Towels?

 No, I don’t love international football more than baseball or American football. It’s just different, like Italian pasta is different from New England seafood and Texas barbecue…but I love them all. In the case of soccer, it’s all about passion: something that soccer players and their fans possess in great abundance.It’s the passion of the players. These well-conditioned athletes (nay, specimens) run like gazelles up and down the pitch for 90 minutes, always striving to earn that elusive goal. Small wonder that when someone does score, some announcers (like Spanish language broadcaster Andres Cantor) cry out: "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!" This is especially true if the goal features a spectacular finish like a Pele bicycle kick or a David Beckham indirect set piece.

It’s the passion of the fans. I am not speaking of hooligans who only go to the matches to cause trouble. Real soccer fans are a colorful and boisterous lot. At the World Cup, you can almost sense that the players move to the beat of their nation’s music and traditions: the samba drums of the Brazilians, the Andrea Bocelli romance of the Italians, the cold precision of the Germans, the gaucho’s stampede of the Argentines, and the "Great Escape" stiff-upper lip of the pint-swilling English.

It’s also the dimension of the game. Major League Baseball players and NFL football players only play for one championship each per year. In international football, pro clubs play for multiple titles at once. There are domestic league championships, league cup tournaments and the UEFA Champions League for those elite European clubs that qualify. Not to mention the fact that many players leave their clubs on occasion to play for their national sides in occasional World Cup qualifiers.Consider Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s a Portuguese national, and one of the game’s biggest stars. His typical monthly schedule for English pro club Manchester United and his Portuguese national team may go something like this: League match, League match, special FA Cup tournament match, League match, go play one match for the Portuguese national team in a World Cup qualifier, League match, UEFA Champions League tournament match, League match. In this game, there’s always something going on, and about 4 standings boards (or "tables") to check on most of the time.

I also love the typical pace of the game. While I am a sports fan, I also have a limit as to how long I can sit still in one place. Two hours is about my max. Baseball’s pace goes like this: Ball-ball-strike-hit…three outs, end of half inning, commercial, beginning of lower half inning…continued for almost 4 hours. How about American football? First down-three and out-punt. Commercial. First down. Commercial. Touchdown! Commercial, with the extra point brought to you by Budweiser. Then there’s that mindless halftime entertainment. Second half – first down, three-and-out, punt, commercial, etc. Get the idea? It’s stop-go-stop-go-stop-go. Soccer contains nothing but 45 minutes of free-flowing action with no commercial timeouts. Halftime lasts about 15 minutes without any halftime entertainment. The second half goes another 45 minutes. And then it’s done! Of course, tied playoff matches can sometimes go an extra half-hour, but I’m on the edge of my seat if that happens.

For most American sports fans, the year’s "down" period is after the Super Bowl and before NFL opening day. That’s certainly the opinion of our local ESPN sports radio host Bobby Hartin: "There’s (American) football season, and there’s waitin’ for (American) football season." Uh, not quite, Bobby. When the Super Bowl ends, the international soccer season really starts to get hot. Consider the following championships that are decided between early February and late May:- All of the domestic league championships. The champion finishes first in the regular season standings and receives the trophy, no questions asked. Additionally, the champ and the top 4 finishers in the more prestigious leagues qualify for the biggest championship tournament of all (for the following season): the UEFA Champions League.- The special domestic league cup tournaments. In England, the FA Cup is one of the most famous such tournaments in the world. - The UEFA Champions League season-long tournament. This ends in a huge championship match that is held at a predetermined stadium somewhere in Europe. The winner of this match is widely considered to be the greatest professional club in the world.

Here is my summary of the 4 top professional leagues in the world:

English Premiership – This is the best overall league, where tactical skill is balanced with speed and flair. It used to be a dull league full of unimaginative longballs until the introduction of non-British internationals such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Michael Essien. Of the final 8 teams in this year’s UEFA Champions League tournament, 4 are from the Premiership. One of these teams is Manchester United, my personal favorite.

Spanish Liga – This is the home of pure lightning speed and explosive offense. A few weeks ago, I witnessed Atletico Madrid outlast Barcelona 4-3 in a match that was end-to-end excitement, and wholly void of any defensive concept. Liga players always push forward with the speed and hunger of Pamplona bulls. As a result, they never have the energy to run back to defend their goal. La Liga’s Fox Soccer Channel matches feature the bombastic Scottish commentator Ray Hudson, who brings a pro wrestling-style to the proceedings: "This goal is a magisterial hit, a Picasso finish! For the goalkeeper, it’s hasta la vista! Or viva la pasta!"

German Bundesliga – It’s as deliberate, tactical and precision-oriented as German engineering. The same may be said of Germany’s national team, the Mannschaft. They are marathon runners who can last 120 minutes. Never, but never, let them drag your team into an overtime penalty kick situation. You won’t win against their solid conditioning and steel nerves.

Italian Serie A – The league is tactical and slow, with the pace of an afternoon cappuccino in Tuscany. Many great players play their final years this league so that they don’t have to run as much (compared to La Liga). If an Italian team scores against yours first, beware – they typically go into a skilled defensive strategy known as cattenacio. In this situation, they make an art form out of passing the ball around the pitch with no apparent place to go…because they don’t have to. I’ll have some olive crostini with that vino, signore – grazie!

As cable TV and the Internet became widely available over time, I started to watch the World Cup every four years. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with this gigantic quadrennial event, because it is like viewing a rose that blooms 1 month out of every 48. If the Red Sox don’t win the World Series, or if the Vikings don’t win the Super Bowl, they can always try again next year. However, if the U.S. national team or England’s "Three Lions," my preferred non-U.S. national side, don’t win the World Cup, "next year" is a 4-year wait. That does a lot to fuel players’ intensity and national pride in these games, all of which makes for a marvelous spectacle.

With time, I discovered that I don’t have to wait every 4 years to see David Beckham, Lionel Messi, or Ronaldinho ply their trade. They spend 80% of their time playing for their pro clubs in some of the most beautifully-designed stadiums on Earth. ESPN Soccernet makes their exploits easy to follow on a daily basis. What’s more, I don’t have to stay up all night to follow the action. Since most of their big matches are in Europe, they play their night games while it’s still the afternoon here in America. So if I’m working on a daytime project, I simply click on ESPN 360 or a live online Match Cast to catch the action.

And that is why this American loves The Beautiful Game. While simple in its conception, soccer offers skillful, emotion-charged action and added dimensions that make it unique. I look forward to the World Series and the Super Bowl, but I’m also counting down the months to when I’ll log on to Yahoo Fan Chat for the first match of next year’s World Cup. See you on the pitch!