The World Cup started yesterday. Most people probably know that. If you’re not into it, that’s OK. Believe it or not, most soccer fans don’t care about your negative opinion of the sport. Just let us enjoy the games, OK?

But today is different. Today isn’t about whether you like soccer or not. We play England today in a real World Cup match. We have played them in friendlies before, but the teams have not met with anything other than false pride at stake in 60 years. That time, we pulled off a monumental upset.

American soccer has come a long way since then. A win today would still rank as an upset, but it’s much more plausible than in 1950. Well, to everyone except the English. That’s why this game means so much.

These are the people who make fun of us for using the word soccer even though THEY INVENTED THE FREAKING WORD. They had a huge controversy when their ex-captain slept with the ex-girlfriend of another player. Hell, we had our captain in 1998 sleep with another player’s wife. During World Cup qualifying. That’s hardcore.

So this is about a lot more than the game on the field. This is about establishing respect, once and for all. This is about a captain named Carlos playing defense alongside a guy named Oguchi. This is about the 20-year-old son of Haitian immigrants teaming up with a white rapper from West east Texas to try and score goals.

We have a guy named Herculez on our team, for God’s sake. How can you not get behind this team?

So turn on your TV at 2:30 eastern time and watch the game on ABC. I don’t give a shit if you like soccer or not because this isn’t about soccer. This is about America. We like holding a grudge for more than 200 years.