I have World Cup fever, possibly from my trip to Central America

I'll admit it, I'm kind of a sports freak. Not in a slapping guys' asses at work, "Go git 'em, Champ!" kind of way, but I'm really drawn to sports as a whole.

While this is its own posting about the things that are really great in sport (especially in a time of steroid scandals, flagging NHL ratings and childish stars writing their own tickets into and out of major markets) this one will focus on just one - soccer.

Each sport has its unique characteristics that make them special, more than just the X's and O's or the utter joy of competition. Each gives us a larger sense of belonging. Each gives us at least glimpses into the sublime from time to time.

When the world's most popular game throws a party this big, it shocks me that America can't be bothered to tune in and take notice.

Prior to the late 80s, US Soccer in international competition ranked somewhere between complete joke and unmitigated disaster. I'm pretty sure the governing body had to pay off foreign teams so that some of those squads could notch a win or two on home soil.

As a kid, I grew up playing soccer and kept playing right up to college when my body and talent levels collapsed suddenly. It didn't hurt that I'd lost my heart and was out of true playing shape for that level. Bottom line is that it wasn't fun any more.

A few years alter, I was playing in the parks of Chicago again, even gathering friends for the Wednesday Night Football Club where pickup games ran all summer. It was fun again and right in time for the last World Cup in 2002.

If you can feel like you're part of something bigger in getting lost in the history of baseball or the rampant adrenaline-fueled crowds in the NFL, just imagine how juiced you get when the entire world essentially shuts down every four years. Think about that. Bigger than the Olympics, towering over the World Series, making the Super Bowl look like a Pop Warner game in Anaheim.

Yeah, good stuff.

So, for all the Americans out there who look down their noses at whiny players taking dives, low-scoring games and hooligan-related incidents, here are a few redeeming qualities that might hold you attention just long enough to enjoy a match or two.

* One of the coolest shows of sportsmanship occurs in soccer, where the ref can't stop play for an injured player as they lay on the field. This is more for legitimate injuries, not the tumbling acts that some players are guilty of as they try to get a cheap call.

The only way for an injured player to get off the field is for a stoppage in play, which means that the other team routinely knocks the ball out of bounds to let the medical staff on the field.

Let's say the US is playing Poland and a Polish player turns an ankle and can't go on. If this happens when the US has the ball, one of the American players will kick it out to stop the game. This leaves Poland in control with a throw in, where they'll turn and boot the ball out intentionally to give the US the ball back for doing them the favor.

It's small, but always pretty cool to see. To my knowledge, no team has ever abused this for their own advantage. Pretty amazing.

* The ref keeps the clock and the scoreboard is only a suggestion. The only time that matters is kept by the ref and anything above the 45-minute halves is called "injury time" and accounts for time spent attending to downed players and other stoppages.

It's more exciting than I can convey to have anywhere between 30 seconds and five minutes or more remaining with your team up or down a goal at the end of the game.

I've been a player, a ref and a spectator and injury time helps to keep things lively at the end of a game. From a ref's perspective, if a team is trying to slow things down to run out the clock, you can just keep adding time as you see fit. Waste 30 seconds screwing around, the ref adds another 30 seconds to keep the game fair.

* As a fan, I've watched US soccer for nearly 25 years now. I've seen some great US players come and go and had a Bruce Murray poster in my bedroom as a kid. I went through the Eric the Red years and the Alexi Lalas marketing blitz. I know why Ernie Stewart had is name spelled two different ways in his career.

I played in my backyard knowing Lalas was going pro in the Italian leagues and figured if a defender from Michigan could make it that far, so could I. Teammates and I would see friendlies at Soldier Field and I snuck into the University of Illinois bowling alley to watch Cup games when I was down there for music camps.

The thing is, so did this crop of players. They grew up with soccer from a grass roots level, knowing of Pele, but never seeing him play. Seeing US teams slowly climb the ranks on the international stage.

They're the first generation which grew up knowing that someday they'd have a legitimate shot at World Cup contention someday. After their shocking showing in Korea, this might be the Cup where they start turning heads. They're currently fifth in the world and were fourth in April. This was unthinkable when I was a kid.

This is big news.

Hell, even the British oddsmakers have the US as 80-1 to win it all. A long shot, but it's not like it's out of the realm of possibility.

Here's the thing - let's say the US gets some lucky bounces and some good breaks on calls. Let's say the top teams run into some problems and the Germans slip a little playing under the glare of the spotlight focused on the host nation.

Let's say they play as well as they are capable of playing and make a run - it'd be a real shame if most of this country missed that build up. It'd be nice to have a little attention in the opening round, too, no? Nothing would make an uglier American than a bandwagon fan who rallies for jingoistic purposes and wakes up just in time to rub peoples' noses in it.

(Photos from eteamz.com / tribuneindia.com)