I was at an event for a local small town near where I grew up. I was sitting with my mom, eating our plates of salmon, minding our own business and watching the people around us interact. Through the hum of the crowd and the sounds of the band playing over a loud speaker, I kept hearing the same questions being asked over and over.

It seems that every adult that passed by one of the high school football players who were helping out at the event asked, "What position do you play?" and "Are you boys going to make it to state this year?"

In that moment I felt as though I had been transported into an episode of Friday Night Lights where the only thing that mattered was the high school football game at the end of the week. It was an odd sensation for someone who has been a lover of a different form of football for her entire life.

I grew up in a soccer family. My dad played it when he was younger, the love of the game having been instilled in him when he was living in Germany (even during the '74 World Cup when Germany won!). Both of my older brothers played the game, my parents coached rec teams, and I was put in soccer camps before I knew what game I was playing. While I tried out several other sports, I never had the same attachment with any of them as I did with soccer.

I eventually had to stop playing because of bad knees and my interest in pursuing other non-athletic, after school activities. This did not stop me from loving the game of soccer, though. My family now has season tickets to watch our home team, The Seattle Sounders FC, and I have seen games played by the US National Teams. I pretty much watch any game that I can find on the TV, college or professional.

I care about the teams I choose to root for, I celebrate when they win and I am saddened when they lose. I cheer and root along side thousands of other fans when I attend home games, and that is the camaraderie I enjoy from being a soccer fan in a predominantly football loving country.

Soccer fans seem to look out for one another. I remember walking down the street in New York City and seeing a guy in a Sounders jersey, when I called out to him, he replied. When I was visiting a museum in Amsterdam, wearing a Sounders beanie to keep my head warm, a woman came up to me and told me that she roots for the Sounders as well. When the British team I support, Chelsea FC, won their league, there were massive amounts of fans showing their love and support in my home town.

Soccer stretches across international boarders, blurring the lines of nationalities and creating communities where everyone should feel welcome. While American Football is loved and adored in the United States, it has not yet reached that level of international success.

I am constantly proud of the teams I choose to support, whether they are from the United States, or from Britain, Germany, or even Spain. This simple game of soccer, pushing a ball around with your feet until it goes into a goal, surprises me every time that it is capable of bringing this many people togehter. The soccer life is intoxicating, and I could not be more happy that I call myself a soccer fan.