In the United States, soccer - as the Americans insist on calling the game - bobs in the wake of basketball, baseball and grid-iron football. Yet for a four-week period starting this Friday, the USA stages the greatest football show on earth.
From the Standing Room Only team comes this special on how the Americans are approaching the World Cup. Simon O'Brien travels from coast to coast in search of the unusual, while Blackburn and England defender Graeme Le Saux reports from the ghettos where the American authorities say they are putting in resources to find their footballing stars of tomorrow.
Shelley Webb visits Los Angeles, where the final will be played, and Alistair McGowan sneaks a look behind the cameras of our own Match of the Day. And there's a survival pack for disgruntled British fans who aren't going to the World Cup.