The game they call "The Beautiful Game" has always been a game that I've called "The Crashing Nationalistic Bore."

Players with weird names running up and down a field and on very rare occasion trying to score a goal. On even more rare occasions they succeed. I like recreational soccer for little kids and high schools. But the world of FIFA, with all the corruption and jingoistic chest thumping soccer has kind of become like war. My country will kill your country. Because of all that, I have been unable to see anything remotely resembling beauty about this game.

Until now.

And it's taken the efforts of a bunch of girls to get me over the hump.

Of course, I'm talking about the Women's World Cup being held in Germany and getting great television treatment on ESPN.

As unbelievable as it seems, I actually checked television schedules to see when the next game was on. And I've found myself watching games. I saw England play France on Saturday and loved – no, liked – almost every moment of it. And then to cap it, Japan beat Germany, the host country and the team favored to win it all. And it took them extra time to do it.

And if anyone has ever seen anything more dramatic than the game against Brazil yesterday, I'd like to know what it is. The Americans scored in the first minute and didn't score again until 122 minutes later. It was an incredible game that ended in the most dramatic fashion with penalty kicks bringing the United States back from the edge of extinction and moving them into the semifinals.

Maybe it's because I'm beginning to understand more about the game than ever before. Like the fact that the game is stacked in favor of the defense. It's no wonder that there is so little scoring. The defense is has an incredible advantage.

But watching these great teams move about the field, trying to find a weak spot, just to get a shot on goal, has a ridiculously high level of intrigue. I found myself holding my breath as the ball advanced downfield, haltingly, then speedily, searching for a crack in the defense.

I used to bristle at the over-the-top celebration after a goal in soccer. But now I understand it. When you play 90 minutes, non-stop, and you finally break through for a goal, the unbridled joy is a natural reaction. Everybody talks about getting more scoring in soccer, but when goals are as rare as they are, they become so much more precious.

I still find some things about soccer a little grating. The announcers on television turn the name of a country into a plural. "England have a little advantage here." Or "the United States have problems in the back line." But I can live with that.

One thing I'd like is instead of extra time see them go immediately to the most exciting thing in all of soccer, the penalty kicks. Those final moments of the France-England game match any excitement I've seen in any sport. Ever.

I'd also institute serious penalties for talking or gesturing to the referee and a real serious penalty for fake flops. Soccer has too much false drama, both men and women.

One of the comparisons that I find myself making is women's soccer with women's basketball. As far as I'm concerned, it's almost no contest. The women's soccer game is full of strategy and speed and toughness. The women's basketball game is full of slowness, bad shooting and lousy defense.

The television ratings around the world have been tremendous. But in the United States they have been barely measurable. And that's a shame. If more people watched, maybe there would be more people who would cultivate more of an interest in this game.

The other thing I like about the Women's World Cup is that there seems to be less nationalism and bragging about "my country." The level of sportsmanship, or sportswomanship, is unlike almost any other sport. There is genuine courtesy in this game.

I'm not a total convert. I wonder if it's women who have made the difference for me. I've always thought that this would be a better world if women were in charge. Women don't try to prove they are the biggest in the crowd. They just want to be better. That was a clearly demonstrated during the Women's World Cup.