Agent Palmer

Season One of Amazon Prime’s “This Is Football” six-part documentary is a perfect example of all that is actually beautiful with the beautiful game.

In a world where, on Amazon Prime or Netflix, a search for soccer or football will bring you to documentaries on the FIFA scandals, which is an example of everything that is wrong with the game, this series is about everything that is right with the game.

For those of us blessed to enjoy more than one sport, September is much more than back-to-school sales. In fact, it is a veritable cornucopia of sports. Our televisions, tablets, and mobile devices are continuously swimming in baseballs, footballs, soccer balls, pucks, and races.

So let’s take a look at what makes this such a wonderful sports month.

Many years ago, back in my college days, I would mindlessly play FIFA 2005 to take my mind off school. Playing FIFA mindlessly meant playing on an easier mode and scoring a ton of goals, and my good friend Chris (a.k.a. Agent Parker), would hear the announcer yell “DONOVAN!” repeatedly as I would maneuver Landon Donovan for a goal.

Well, it appears that the real Landon Donovan has been playing on easy mode for a long time as the career goal-scoring record holder for both the United States Men’s National Team and for Major League Soccer.

Germany stands atop the game of football (or futbol or even soccer, depending on your country of origin) as the 2014 World Cup Champions. This isn’t a shock as they’ve been here before – three times, in fact – making this their fourth World Cup.

This makes them a powerhouse in their sport, but it was how they managed to get to World Cup Championship No. 4 that makes this impressive.

Football, Futbol or Soccer, whatever you call “The Beautiful Game” it’s currently in a stage of frenzy commonly called, “World Cup Fever,” and the only cure is more of it.

In fairness to the other sports, it is only really in the United States where you either get it or you don’t. Otherwise, you get it and it’s a matter of degrees between passing fancy or religion.

In places where it is a religion, almost every beyond American borders, although factions do exist within the US, it’s hard to explain to Americans why it’s so important.