Littlefield: Why You Should Watch The World Cup, Even Without The U.S.

It’s World Cup time, and never mind that the U.S. men aren’t in it. The world is watching, and so am I.

It has not always been so. 'Twas a time when I laughed along with greybeard U.S. sportswriters who dismissed soccer as dumb because the players couldn’t use their hands.

“Right,” I thought.

Wrong, I know now.

How’d that happen?

On cold mornings, I watched my two daughters in bright shirts, learning — gradually — that chasing the ball in a swarm was no way for a team to play.

In the company of those daughters, I watched the U.S. women’s team play Norway. We learned a lot together.

Several years later, while interviewing Julie Foudy in a conference room in a Connecticut hotel, I mentioned those daughters. Julie excused herself, went to her room and came back with two photographs that she autographed for my kids.

When the New England Revolution arrived, I sat in the press box between two loquacious writers, both superb teachers of the intricacies of the game — patient, tolerant, gentle with their corrections.

On a trip to Spain, jet-lagged nearly to the point of hallucination, I saw FC Barcelona play at home in the company of 100,000 other people. They waved banners and sang. I embraced their team.

When the Boston Breakers began playing at Nickerson Field, just across the street from work, I split a season ticket package with a neighbor and his family. My wife, my daughters, and I saw half the Breakers home games, which featured, among others, this country’s most durable and accomplished player: Kristine Lilly.

And then there’s the World Cup. One image will suffice. In 2010, in a restaurant full of Spanish speakers, I watched Spain — a team committed to playing with finesse and joy — hold off a team from the Netherlands, the coach of which had apparently decided before the game that his only hope lay in mugging the opposition.

Spain prevailed. Soccer prevailed. I left that restaurant as happy as any team from the U.S. could have made me.

It’s too bad the U.S. didn’t make the cut this time around, but if you’ve decided not to watch the tournament for that reason, reconsider. No game can do more than temporarily distract us from the real and stubborn tensions between regions, religions, and races. But for the duration of the World Cup, we’re invited to join billions of fans from all over the world in the celebration of the most popular game the residents of the planet have devised.

It is not an insignificant invitation.