5 Reasons Every Woman Should Love Soccer

The planet has been consumed by World Cup Fever, but you’d barely
know it from life in the US.  Most Americans will tell you soccer is
boring and wholly uninteresting because it takes so long for anyone to
score.  But I’m here to tell you those people are wrong.  In fact, if
you’re a woman, this game was made for you.  Here’s why:

5.  Va Va Voom

Soccer has two 45-minute periods with a 15-minute break in between.
 Once the clock starts, it doesn’t stop.  No wimpy time-outs, no
bringing proceedings to a halt if players get hurt, no bratty coaches
interrupting to throw hissy fits.  The players go until time runs out.

A field full of men who can sustain vigorous physical activity for ninety minutes straight?  Goal!

Besides, any knucklehead can catch or throw a ball, and with enough
practice, lob it into a hole. But can you bounce one off your foot,
upper body or head and send it sixty yards into a net?  Me either.

4.  Mama Mia&Obrigado

Soccer offers pure theater, especially from those gorgeous
Italians.  A ref makes a bad call and the Italian teams beat their
chests and fall to their knees in prayer position calling out to the
Holy Father.  Remember the Frenchman who was penalized for headbutting
another guy in the torso in 2006?  The other guy was a hunky Italian
who’d said something about the Frenchman’s momma.  The Italians turn
the game into a Fellini film.

And check out the Brazilians.  When first learning about soccer, I
was told European players are trained since boyhood, but most
Brazilians learn the game while playing barefoot on the beach as kids. 
Thus, their skills are organic and their bodies flow around the ball
like magical beams of light.  Imagine the Harlem Globetrotters playing
a real game of basketball and you’ve got Brazil on a soccer pitch.

3.  Cultcha

If you want to get the differences between the world’s cultures,
watch soccer.  You’ll see the streamlined efficiency of the Germans,
the haughty fluidity of the French, the measured fervor of Argentines. 
And there are histories here: colonial powers competing against former
colonies and rivalries going back to the era of kingdoms.  Soccer is so
much more than a game.

2.  We are the World

I lived in Germany during the last World Cup, and saw first hand how
soccer is the biggest sporting event in the galaxy.  World War III
could have broken out, no one would have noticed, too busy were they
sitting in front of televisions watching soccer.  What I loved most was
seeing the entire planet in one place: Sweden was there, France,
Mexico, Ghana, Korea, countries I’d never even heard of.  Being a
soccer fan connects you to the global community.  During those two
weeks, you imagine the entire planet coming together to celebrate both
the Earth’s cultural mélange and the beauty of the human body and soul
being pushed to its edge.  Am I the only one who thinks that’s awesome?

1.  Pure, Unadulterated Hotness