Hi, my name is Mark, and I love soccer.

Yes, I know it might be a problem. But before you start calling me a communist, a Frenchie or a terrorist, let me explain how being afflicted with this soccer syndrome can help you, the jaded Binghamton student, who longs to have a college football team.

We all wish we could go to huge bonfires, tailgate, paint our faces black and green and go nuts as the Bearcats go toe-to-toe with Notre Dame on a Saturday afternoon in front of 60,000 fans, but I’m sorry, it’s just not happening. However, while we don’t have an American football team, we do have a football team — two in fact, and both very talented at that.

But let’s backtrack for a moment, to why I love soccer. I’m sure a great deal of you watched the World Cup, and were just as enamored with the international competition as I was. Just seeing the passion that the crowd had, the precision of the passing, the constant motion and, of course, the sheer awesomeness of the jerseys, was great. I was on the couch all day, every day, watching any World Cup game I could find, watching as my beloved Ukraine squad wound up in the final eight against world powers like Italy and Spain.

That soon evolved into watching the Fox Soccer Channel at home, watching everything from Premiere League classics between Liverpool and Chelsea, to watching the New York Red Bulls take on someone in a Major League Soccer exhibition match.

Soon I was on the Internet at 3 o’clock in the morning, ordering authentic Andrei Shevchenko Ukraine jerseys off eBay. I now see people on campus wearing Argentina jerseys or FC Barcelona hats and I automatically think, “Wow, that kid’s cool.”

Loving soccer makes you feel like part of this secret society of people who understand that Ruud Van Nistelrooy is not some kind of new Middle Eastern dish. This sport is watched by more people in the world than anything else, and there’s a reason for it. Give it a chance.

I know a lot of you feel the same way I do. I’ve seen the jerseys, I’ve seen you kicking balls around, heck, I’ve even seen some of you running through campus with shirts over your heads screaming “Goooooooaaaaaaal!” So it’s time to show that same love that you show for AC Milan, or for the Trinidad Socca Warriors, to our Binghamton Bearcats.

Both our men’s and women’s soccer teams are near the top of the conference every year, and this year should be no different. So go out there, paint your face, learn how to bend it like a Bearcat, make some chants (see sister article) and turn the BU Zoo into the BU Soccer Hooligans. You owe it to your teams, and to yourself as the soccer fan you deserve to be.