Sports: Spanning the globe to give you the constant variety of sports

If you are above a certain age you will remember this: Spanning the globe to give you the constant variety of sports. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, the human drama of athletic competition. This is ABC's Wide World of Sports.

I have been following World Cup 2006 with more interest than in the past. I didn't order up cable, nor am I pub crawling looking for games on TV or nor am watching at odd-hours on Spanish or Korean language television.

Nonetheless, as an observer of culture, it has been lots of fun. The viewing and enjoyment of sports is such a typically male activity. With Title IX, more women can participate in sports and a certain percentage of women enjoy watching sports but I do wonder if the experience is as visceral?

I've heard some say that team and honor are deeply male virtues. Just as there are "chick" flicks, there are "buddy" movies and they are usually inspirational team sports movies or war movies or crime/bad guy fighting action adventure films.

Thus, soccer, though less a part of the American psyche can tap into that sense of team and honor.

On top of those "male" aspects there is the national pride angle.

Los Angeles has a large Korean community. Thus, on Sunday, I couldn't help but root for them against the French. I pumped my fists as Korea got that late goal to tie the game. ABC's cameras showed the tens (?) of thousands of red-clad fans in the German stadium going crazy then they switched to Los Angeles' Staples Center where they opened the doors to thousands of fans who watched the game on the jumbo scoreboard and they too exploded in celebration.

I didn't see the game on Saturday between Italy and USA but by all reports it was a gutsy performance by the undermanned USA team.

Some of my predictions have flopped but it has been a good geography lesson and lots of fun.