I want to like soccer. I really do.

            I’ll be honest. For the last three years and 11 months, I was one of the majority of Americans that pushed soccer to the periphery of my consciousness.

            Sure, I knew that the U.S.A. had qualified for the World Cup, but I was going to go ahead and save all of my excitement for game day.

            Now that I have stayed the course for the past two weeks, I can only say this: I was misled. There is nothing wrong with soccer in America. There is however, something very wrong with how the rest of the world has messed up such a great game.

            Please don’t take this as sour grapes. That’s not what this column is intended to be, but I couldn’t help but notice over the last two weeks just why many of us still hesitate to embrace “the world’s game”.

            Rest assured. Nothing that our country did at the World Cup did anything to dampen my view of the game.

            Instead, it was the performances of many of the so-called elite soccer playing nations that gave me a much better impression as to why many of us have been so reluctant to embrace the sport.

            In short, we play soccer like it’s a sport while the rest of the world seems to think that it’s a Shakespearean play.

            I realize that scoring a goal in a soccer game between elite teams is quite a chore, but to take dive after dive in hopes of being awarded a free kick or penalty kick is demeaning to the integrity of yourself and the sport in general.

            Gamesmanship is one thing, but in a sporting culture that thinks nothing of hockey players putting their face in front of a speeding puck, offensive lineman routinely breaking noses and fingers without sitting out a play, and baseball players refusing to even rub whatever part of their body has just absorbed a 90 mile-per-hour fastball, the flopping has got to stop.

            In that respect, I give a lot of credit to the U.S. squad. Sure, some were expecting us to do a bit better at the World Cup – especially after many traditional powers struggled through the group stage – but at least we played the game how it should be played.

            In all four games, the Stars and Stripes pulled themselves up off the mat and came through for a tying or winning goal. It’s a shame that Ghana was able to get another cheap score to eliminate the U.S., but Landon Donovan and crew showed the toughness and determination that will lead to more success in the future – especially if we make soccer more of a physical competition and less of a drama class.

Join the new century

            One more thought on soccer, and once again, I’m only trying to help here.

            Everyone watches it. There are multiple television cameras at every international competition. Please utilize this to help officiate the games.

            As I previously stated, it’s a minor miracle in itself just to score a goal at this level. When a team actually accomplishes this, it’s a shame to see a bad call nullify the goal.

            While everyone is familiar with the two goals that were denied to the U.S., those are far from the only examples in the past two weeks.

            Sunday, a goal by Argentina was upheld when an official miss what appeared to be a blatant offside call.

            In the game before that, England was robbed of a goal when an official somehow failed to notice that Frank Lampard’s shot had cleared the goal line by at least a foot before being brought back into play by the German goalkeeper.

            With so many available replays and a system already in place to add time to the end of a half, how difficult could it possibly be to have some sort of review system? In all four of the incidents that I mentioned, I can’t see how it would have taken any more than 30 seconds for an official in the press box to review the play, reverse the call, and send word down to the field.

For as remedial as the rest of the world finds American soccer to be, it’s the U.S. federation that is already toying with ideas for replay or added officials to make sure that the games are called accurately. Add that to a league full of players who don’t hit the turf like there are snipers in the stands, and we might just have the start of something.

            In all, I really think that I’m starting to come around on soccer. This crazy game might be all the rage across the rest of the globe, but it’s still growing here, and like any growing sport, it might need some tweaks before it is totally embraced.

            I choose to look on the bright side though. We have definitely come a long way as a soccer-playing nation since our first modern-era appearance in the World Cup in 1990. Four years from now, I think that Sam’s Army will roll into England in 2014 with an even better product.

            I just hope that the rest of the game can say the same.