Instead, we're going to try and get you into it by showing you just how much fun the World Cup can be. Picture it not as something you have to do because you have to be like everyone else, but as, well, kind of a way to travel around the world in a month without ever having to leave the city.

Here's what we mean. If there's a big game involving Italy, go to an Italian cafe in North Beach (Steps of Rome is SFist's fave place to watch the Azzurri) and watch the game from there. Places like Steps will wheel out a big screen TV and the game will be watched be actual, real Italians (not Italian wanna-bes who often frequent those places) who will spend the entire game talking Italian, drinking espressos, and genuflecting at the TV screen (we've seen it). Or for a big Brazilian game, go to a Brazilian restaurant/bar (Canto do Brasil or the South Beach Cafe might do the trick) and enjoy the drums, the passion, the scantily clad Brazilian women. And you have to go to an English Pub (Mad Dog in the Fog is THE place to be) to watch a big English match. One of our favorite sporting moments, like ever, was watching the epic England/Argentina game in '98: the game started at 12, we got there at 10, the bar was packed tight by 11, and by 11:30 the Brits started singing every English soccer song known to ever exist. It was more fun watching that game than any big Niners or Raiders game, partly because if we could squint we could easily picture ourselves in a London pub at that very moment.