Fresh off one of the greatest upsets in soccer history, I feel as though I must respectfully register my disagreement with Noah's post last month on how soccer is an inferior spectator sport to American sports. Alas, I didn't get to watch a single minute of the tournament because it was only available on pay per view, but I sure love watching soccer.

The best part of the sport is there aren't stoppages. I don't know how anyone can convincingly make the argument that baseball is more fun to watch than soccer. Even the innings where something exciting happens have huge swaths of time where nothing is happening except people spitting, tapping their cleats, adjusting their caps, or trying to hold the runner on first by throwing 15 pickoff throws in a row. An entire game of American football might have, and I am estimating wildily on this, 10 minutes where the players are actually playing. The rest of the time (over 2.5 hours!) they're standing around with their hands on their hips, or I'm having to endure a beer commercial.

Soccer is always moving, and while some parts are more exciting than others, its athleticism has a grace that those sports sorely lack. Just watching a long crossing pass get trapped perfectly is a lot more fun than watching a grounder to short, or a run up the middle for 4 yards.

There is strategy in soccer, but it's more spontaneous and improvised than in other sports. And I think that strikers working together to improvise an attack on goal or a a team's coordinated counterstrike is a lot more fun to watch than the "strategy" of giving a basketball to Shaq in the low post every time, or of seeing the same pick and roll 10 times down the court, or of not throwing strikes to Barry Bonds.

Soccer's curse, that goals are so rare, is also a blessing -- few leads are safe, and the effort and creativity expended in getting the ball in the back of the net is beautiful. While I would like to see more great plays rewarded on the scoreboard, I don't lament the lack of statistics in the sport. American sports are WAY too over-analyzed (except baseball, which lends itself perfectly to that type of analysis). The most important statistic in soccer is the win column, and that's just fine.

That said, there's not a lot wrong with the major american sports, and I think basketball of the non-NBA variety is every bit the sport that soccer is. But I, for one, love watching soccer.