I'm an American living in the UK. And to be honest, although I loathed spectator sports in the states - I really like watching football here (not American football!). I was trying to figure out why - and decided that it must be the advertisements. In the states with any sport - there is about 5 minutes of action and then a 3 minute commercial slot. The beauty of football is that they show 45 minutes of action, break for a halftime, and then show the second 45 minutes. And its great. You become much more invested in the game when you are not bombarded by chevy and bud every time you blink, and can appreciate the athleticism much more.

So to answer your question - throwing a world cup final party at my place tonight with my projector and a wall that has about 120" screen :)

This pretty much sums up spectator sports in general, and football/soccer in particular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN1WN0YMWZU

When I was younger, I really didn't understand the game. But now I see that it's like watching a game of chess - same principles, but just a bit more exciting.

I don't, but the cafeteria at work (Nvidia) is packed during games, and a guy on my team said he could hear the cheers from upstairs.

haha, if you could discern one cheer from another, you'd basically know the results ;)

I wanted to engage with my friends and family spread throughout the world through this soccer games and so I started a little prediction contest for each game. We would all put down our predictions and then tally points. It became fun and connected us all in a totally unexpected way.

It's true, I'm amazed how huge soccer/football is in every other country other than the U.S.

I think pretty much anybody from Europe follows at least a little

I don't but my entire office does in Canada (mostly made of people from outside of Canada)