If there is one thing humanity is absolutely obsessed with it is games. We are eternally exercising our inner child in some way, shape or form with something called a ball, a puck or by pushing our bodies into movement other than just plain walking. As we get older, these games take on new importance and some become sports; suddenly, a game with a ball and a few players becomes something to be revered, especially at the professional level. It takes on a whole new world to the people spectating. Sports can be a form of bonding, a way of expressing political sentiments or just a few moments of losing yourself to the excitement of the masses around you and focusing on something outside of the daily grind.

There are stories of amazing athletes in every country; thousands aspire to be those national beacons of hope during the good times and the bad. This holds especially true in the United States, where there are some who care more about their fantasy American football teams than who might be currently running the country. During the '30s and '40s, at the time of the Great Depression and World War II, American baseball and boxing gave people something to think about and hope for, besides food in their bellies and the longed for return of brave men currently overseas.

We’ve all seen the movies featuring the lives of great athletic icons that purged cultural boundaries and made people rethink their fellow men and women, because they held some very important common ground. We all love to play. And we all love to win. It would be sacrilegious in some parts of the U.S to say you have never seen "Remember the Titans" or "We Are Marshall" or "Rudy." They are great sources of pride to Americans, because they are movies that demonstrated how American citizens overcame great hurtles like prejudice and tragedy with passionate desire to score a touchdown for more than just the thrill. Where once baseball was the great American pastime, many would argue that for the past few decades it has been replaced by American football. And while football has had a great run, I think it’s time that we let real football into the limelight.

American football both divides and unites people by the teams they root for and the audiences it brings. People can get vicious in the stands toward one another whether they support the same team or not. True, it provides us an opportunity to throw Super Bowl parties and invite all of our friends to share in the merriment, but what are we all actually celebrating these days? The opportunity to pay more attention to the best commercials that companies pay millions or billions of dollars for in order to encourage consumerism for 30 seconds each rather than the actual game? How much more revealing the cheerleaders’ uniforms have become? Or whether or not the halftime show will be half as over the top or showy as the year before?

There’s another downside that bothers me even more than the others. American football encourages feelings of isolationism. Nationalist sentiment has reached some interesting extremes as of late. We are constantly competing with other nations to come out on top in any and every category, and the people who go on shouting that America is the greatest country in the world are now also preaching that we need to make it great again. Americans are retreating back within themselves, and it shows even in sports. After all, it’s quite easy to be the best at something when only your country participates in American football. And yet this nation that loves to dominate in the Olympics barely bats an eye at some of the biggest international competitions in the world.

Soccer, or football in most other parts of the world, is crying out to the U.S. to participate. We celebrated the 50^th Super Bowl with great vigor, but people barely register that the 100^th year of a tournament that encompasses the entire Western Hemisphere is being played in our backyards! These games are being played in some of the arenas that people pack all the way out through the doors during football season, yet when I watch these games, and the cameras pan out throughout the crowds, I see either tons of empty seats, people that might have traveled across borders to see their favorite players compete, or citizens expressing their loyalty to more than one home. Soccer is the international phenomenon that could be new frontier for the U.S., yet we have been participating in these tournaments for years.

Often, I hear people complain of American baseball that the games are too long and too slow, and of American football that there are too many stops in between plays and commercial breaks. (I personally agree.) Jeff Dunham poked fun at NASCAR, saying that the excitement lies in “another left turn and ooh, look! Another left turn!” Yet soccer is none of those things. It is one of the most fast-paced games out there; the game's speed is set by a clock, while the pace and how much happens is controlled by the players. You never know what will happen next. The play book is very limited, and you actually have to let the ball go out of bounds in a specific way in order to get the chance to actually set up a play, usually during a corner kick. But half the time, whatever happens in the box is a free-for-all. My blood races just thinking about the mindboggling kicks, headers and tumbles I’ve both witnessed and partaken in during a soccer game.

This is a little known secret to a lot of Americans, but we actually have some incredible players in American soccer’s history and out on the field today. Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Mia Hamm, Carlie Lloyd and Hope Solo are probably the most well-known greats. They have been leading the struggle in the last 20 or so years to make soccer a more popular sport in the U.S. It is now the third most-played sport in the U.S., and I think there is more than just one reason why.

For starters, many more people are emigrating from Latin American countries, where soccer is by far the number one sport, and they bring their passions with them. This is important, because current feelings toward immigrants from these areas has not been very favorable, yet the population continues to grow. There is no way to draw a direct correlation from this, and I won’t try to, but if anything one of my biggest reasons for following La Copa is because it offers us a chance to bond over shared international interests and learn something from it.

Watching some of the talent and the maturity with which some of these teams in other countries play is mind boggling. Soccer itself does something that so many other sports cannot. These international tournaments allow athletes the chance not only to play Club ball, but also to play with different national teams. You can watch Messi (possibly the greatest player in the world right now) play for both Barcelona and Argentina without people taking it as disloyal. Not only do the players get to expand their talents, playing with and against people they wouldn’t normally play, but these tournaments also create an international community among those who work for the organizations that put on these tournaments and the tons of fans who travel to see these games.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the 100^th Copa America is being played in the United States. It’s obvious that the United States Soccer Federation wanted to use it to grow the popularity of the sport. So, America, take the bait! By all means, cheer hard for the Americans if they make it further in this competition; I most certainly will. It is a great opportunity and environment to be a fanatic in these arenas, or in your own living room. But I challenge you to go one step further. Pick another team to cheer for as well. Personally, I am going with Columbia, and no, it is not just because I’m slightly in love with their talented Midfielder who also plays for Real Madrid, James Rodriguez. (Yes, I know he’s married and has a kid!) It’s because the games I’ve watched show some impressive expertise in moving the ball around, and I am sure the U.S., who has already lost once to them in this tournament, would agree. Argentina and Mexico are also looking like favorites, or pick the more obscure and surprising Venezuela, whose success in this tournament was much unexpected. We have a history of getting into the affairs of all other nations in the Western Hemisphere, so it would be quite natural for us to do the same here, with the same competitive and aggressive nature that we usually display in all things national and international. It is a great way to play football, after all.