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It's hard to describe without body language the passion of the World Cup, the soccer championship that comes around every four years and opens today in Germany. Entire nations - not this one, though - grind to a halt as the greatest players take the field in the world's most popular sport. Form and beauty on the pitch will parallel the best and worst off it, as fans unite in the global game and hooligans push national pride to its boiling point, racism.
American writers make a cottage industry of denigrating the sport, using the cup as a referendum on the state of American soccer. For the record, the U.S. team is decent and ably coached, the nation's youth leagues - though disorganized - are turning out good players and women's teams, by succeeding, have advanced gender equity across American athletics.
The soap opera on the sidelines can be as amusing as Ronaldinho's footwork. National colors in the stands, the clock ticking nonstop as the ball moves up the field and marketing that makes the Super Bowl look like a county fair all add to keep TVs alight across the globe at all hours. The frenzy begins when Germany takes on Costa Rica today; the United States opens Monday against the Czech Republic. Even Americans not bitten by the soccer bug should be proud of our national team. For the moment, we are both Yankees and internationalists.