Living in NYC in 2002, working for a brit and french owned company, World Cup was a big deal. There were employees from all over the world, but lots of French and Brits. The broadcasts were super early in the morning because the games were in South Korea. This was of course reason enough to get drunk before 7 a.m., which many of us did. What the hell is not to like about this, right? The bars were full of people having a good time, it was fun.
Somebody at the company got the security guys downstairs to hold up the scores in front of all the losers (and a few winners) as they walked in the building through that tournament. France lost to Senegal in the first round and one of the Brit employees managed to hang a Senegalese flag on a French Executive's door before he came in from having watched the game. That kind of shtein was fun.
I like watching soccer, especially when it's played at the highest level. The game I saw last night is not the highest level by any stretch of the imagination, but it was two national teams competing for a win that meant more than nothing. Maybe not much more--the U.S. started a B team, resting the players who just performed so well in the Confederations cup--but nevertheless it was pretty good soccer. The first U.S. goal was fun, watching it develop live was pretty thrilling.
The crowd was completely different than any other pro sporting event I've attended: far more cosmopolitan, with people from all over the Americas as well as Europoeans, Africans, etc. And also far poorer on average than any other crowd I've seen.
I don't really know much about the sport. Others here have actually been to Premier or World Cup games. I only vaguely follow what's going on myself, but I am looking forward to World Cup 2010. I plan to watch a lot of soccerdrink a lot of beer in bars.