By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The match between South Korea and the United States in World Cup competition was the first soccer game I've watched carefully from beginning to end.

Now I understand why this is the world's most popular sport. Soccer most closely resembles human behavior since the beginning of time, with everybody racing around without accomplishing much. It's the rat race elevated to an art form.

I also figured out why soccer is taking so long to catch on in the United States. Every player on each team must have run up and down the field, not to mention back and forth, hundreds of times during the game. They ended up with a score of 1-1.

The ratio of energy output to manufactured product would never make it in Detroit. Soccer isn't EFFICIENT.

Probably that's why baseball is the All-American game. Each player has his assigned job, like a worker in an assembly line. The only time an outfielder expends energy is when a fly ball comes his way.

Another essential aspect of sports in the United States is technology. Baseball requires not only bat and ball but gloves, shin guards, chest protectors and face masks. The equipment for a professional football game resembles the armor of a knight.

For World Cup soccer, all you need is a ball. That's not the American way.

There's an even more subversive element to soccer. The first half was almost over when I realized that the game hadn't been interrupted by a single commercial. How could the free-enterprise system survive if everybody played a game like that?

As I watched the match, I kept thinking of the United Nations. Not because the players were of different colors, but because the game is such a free-for-all. Nobody seems to call the plays. Alliances shift in the blink of an eye.

The morality of the game strikes me as singularly honest if not honorable. It's illegal to trip or tackle somebody. But all the players do it to prevent a score because it's worth the penalty.

OK, so the same thing happens in basketball. But basketball is a Sunday school picnic compared to soccer. And the scores come much easier, like stock dividends instead of a paycheck.

Frankly, the soccer match gave me new faith in humanity. Here's a game played by every nation in the world —from industrial giants to Third World countries; from states governed by free assemblies to communist collectives.

And the teams don't even have a quarterback. Football is two helmeted armies at war. Soccer is a blend of cooperative effort and individualism. I've never seen a more democratic game. This is the most popular sport on earth. What does that tell you about how humans naturally behave?

Think of the energy that has gone into every small advance of civilization. Think how much time you spend scurrying around trying to find a bargain. Think of the number of times you've failed. Then watch a soccer game. It's like looking in a mirror.