In all honesty, we can't call ourselves the biggest soccer-phile out there. We don't really follow the sport when it's not the World Cup, although we do occasionally pay somewhat attention to what's going on in the World of Futbol. Still, we’ve always rooted for soccer to become big here in the States. We played it as children, played it again as adults, and love the sport and the passion that it brings. Yesterday, we couldn't have been happier about how into the game everyone was. The day had a Big Event feel to it, like a Bay To Breakers or Superbowl Sunday vibe. It felt like half the city was either on their way to Dolores Park or to North Beach.

So naturally, we went to Belden Place. Why not? We were rooting for les Bleus and the idea of being surrounded by people screaming "Sacre Bleu" or "Zizou!" with non-ironic French accents warmed the cockles of our heart. And we got what we wanted, other than a French victory, of course. The alley way was jam packed with people, we heard smattering of French and Italian everywhere, and we even got to hear people sing "La Marseillaise." If only it were WWII and in black & white, it would have been just like Casablanca.

Pictured-- Frenchies celebrating Zidane's penalty shot.
Not pictured-- Frenchies gobsmacked by the Head Butt Heard 'Round the World. We think the French commentators said it best: "mais pourquoi, pourquoi?"

More pictures after the break, as well as why we think this World Cup finally got Soccer Fever started:

So after the game, we headed off to North Beach to see how the partying was being done Italian style. It was being done rather well. North Beach had turned into a block party as the police blocked off parts of Columbus Street. Everyone was dancing and cheering and singing and waving Italian flags.

Not pictured-- dozens of Frat Boys and Frat Girls who were at the most 1/4 Italian through a Great-Grand Parent wearing Italian soccer jerseys and acting is if they hadn't just watched their first soccer game.

At the center of it was a large circle of people singing "Ole!" and throwing people up in the air in celebration.

Not pictured-- the hours and hours of drunken mayhem that followed. As well as the half-bottle of aspirin and Pepto that SFist gobbled down in an attempt to fend of the inevitable hangover that bugs them still.

SFGate also has great photos of the day. As does Phil Eager's Flickr account of pictures of North Beach and Tellumo's photos of Dolores Park.

Now, as to why all of this is good for Soccer here in the land of Free and the Home of the Brave...

You know how everyone mentions all the Soccer youth who played soccer? And how everyone says it proves that soccer won't work here because they drop the sport once they get older? Well, we tend to think of it more as a Sleeper Agent type thing and a lot of us have just been activated. All the kids who played soccer and are playing soccer want to get into it, but never really felt like it would lead anywhere. Not just because there was no soccer league, but there was no way to keep up with the sport. Now, thanks the miracles of modern technology, there is.

You can read English papers online. As well as sports sites like Soccernet or 360Soccer and hundreds of blogs. You can now watch games on the Fox Soccer Channel or just go to the Mad Dog to watch Premiere League games. There is also YouTube, which could be the best thing to happen to Soccer because with a quick search, you can find everything from ten-minute tributes to individual players but every famous soccer goal of the past twenty years. It's so much easier now to keep your interest level up.

We know most people who watched the Cup aren't going to continue with it. Already, the haters are out in force bitching about flopping or penalty kicks or what have you (don't even get us started on all this, but let's just say this about all the kvetching about bad calls and flopping-- have you watched an NBA game in the past fifteen years?). But we're also thinking there's a whole bunch of people like us out there, who are now looking through Premiere League teams and trying to decide which team to call their own (currently between Arsenal and Tottenham) and downloading schedules. We also know that in the upcoming months, if we suggest to friends to go to the Mad Dog to watch a big match, we'll have plenty of people who would be willing to tag along. That wasn't the case a few months ago. We're also pretty sure that, like us, there's a whole lot of people looking at a remaining sports calendar of frustrating .500 baseball, fat guys in pads running around in over-hyped games promoted by Vegas rejects, and the year long shoe commercials that is the NBA, and can't wait for the Euro2008.

Ole, indeed.

PS- in a weird sort of way Zizou's booboo is actually a positive thing for Soccer in the states. Why? Because the conventional wisdom had it that soccer was considered too wussy for us red-blooded, meat eating Americans. But what could be more badass than head butting someone in the final match of the World Cup?