World Cup 2010 was my first time really paying attention to the whole tournament. I was never really a big soccer fan until recently. But I have to admit that I was intrigued by the whole thing. From the amazing opening ceremonies to the final Spanish goal, I was watching.

In the USA we use the Super Bowl as the gold standard for a spectacle. I now will use the World Cup, because these organizers know how to throw a party. The day before the world’s most watched sport was to kick off, the Black Eyed Peas and Shakira got it started with a 2 hour long extravaganza.

Let me explain why I decided to start watching this year, there were a few factors to making me a fan. First off, I went to Mexico and watched the USA play Mexico in Mexico City. The intensity of the fans and the dedication they had to the team was amazing. The pace of the game surprised me too. It wasn’t as slow as I had always remembered it seeming. I also have begun spending time with many people of foreign origins and of course they are all crazy about their “football.” I also have family members who play soccer so there are many reasons why I have begun to be enthralled by the most popular sport in the world.

Before watching I was told to pick multiple teams to root for, this way you will be committed to a larger portion of the tournament than if I picked just one.  So I picked the USA, of course, Germany and Spain. All of my teams made it out of the first round.

My first team to get eliminated was the USA, but what a run the Americans had. When Landon Donovan scored the last minute goal against Algeria, I saw soccer becoming relevant here in the USA. For one of the first times I could remember, people were talking about the USA as a team that could do big things, just by being in those conversations, it says a lot about where the USA has positioned itself in the world’s game.

My second team which was eliminated was Germany, but it was inevitable that I would have one eliminated since they were playing my other team, Spain, in the semi-finals. Germany was looking invincible coming into the match with Spain, having scored 4 goals in back to back games against England and Argentina, but the Spanish defense was having none of that. Spain seemed to snuff out any of the German chances eventually winning 1-0.  Germany ended up beating Uruguay 3-2 to finish 3^rd in the tournament.

The finals were between Spain and the Netherlands. Neither team had ever won a World Cup Championship. The game had many scoring chances and multiple great stops by the goalies. It ended up being a scoreless match until there were just a few minutes left in overtime, and  then Iniesta took a sloppy pass and knocked it out of the air to score a World Cup winning goal.

Now to be honest, I am still learning the players, I know Donovan and David Villa and Wesley Snijder but other stars are still unfamiliar to me. I don’t know the history of all of the cups of past or even all of the nuances of the game, but I do know one thing, the World Cup will be an event I watch for the rest of my life. I may even go see AC Milan play Panathinaikos in August during a friendly at the Pontiac Silverdome. Maybe I’ll have players to root for in that match.  I just may become an avid fan of soccer.