Soccer is the single largest sport in the world. It’s played in more countries and by more people than can be counted. Let me provide a little perspective: More people play soccer on this planet than buy gasoline.

Think about it. That’s a lot of people.

We even have soccer to thank for the sport for which I live and breathe – American-style football.

How? Well, to borrow a “begat” sequence from the Bible – soccer begat rugby, and rugby begat American football.

I’ll admit it. I don’t understand the sport. How any game can routinely end in a tie (and everyone be OK with that) is beyond me. George Carlin, for my money, summed it up best when he said: “Soccer is not a sport, because you can’t use your arms. Anything where you can’t use your arms can’t be a sport. Tap dancing isn’t a sport.”

But with all due respect to George, it appears his and my naïve and contrarian views on the game leave us decidedly in the minority.

People all over the world are crazy about the sport of soccer, and some of them are gay athletes right here in San Diego.

It might surprise you to know (it did me) that the San Diego Sparks Soccer Club is one of the oldest sports organizations for gays and lesbians in the city. The club started in 1986, more than 20 years ago, by founder Leslie Randolph.

The club is a member of the International Gay and Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA), which has 32 member clubs in 15 countries and in eight U.S. states. As IGLFA members, the Sparks join the Atlanta-based Hotlanta Soccer Association, which held its annual tournament at the end of May. After playing a remarkable seven games in just two days, the Sparks had a phenomenal tournament, finishing in second place.

But all that running can certainly take its toll. That’s why the athletes who compose the club are just that, athletes. Soccer is a grueling, unforgiving sport that requires skillful technique, patience and ironman-like endurance.

Soccer players will run the entire length of a field (100 yards long, 60 yards wide), pass the ball to a teammate, and watch him kick it toward the goal only to have it defended and then turned over to an opponent. Then they have to turn around and run back a hundred yards in hopes of being able to regain possession of the ball, just so they can turn around and make another run at their opponent’s goal, 100 yards in the other direction. That’s 300 yards of solid running in about four to five minutes. Keep in mind, a soccer match lasts an hour and a half. That’s a lot of running and kicking.

To put that in context, I only walk three steps when I’m bowling.

Yes, you have to be pretty fit to be an effective “striker” or “forward,” but soccer requires as much elegance as it does endurance. The footwork a soccer player has to employ when advancing or protecting the ball is an almost ballet-like performance of forward and backward steps, tapping the ball feverishly, but ever-so-slightly, to coax it from one foot to another, patiently waiting for either the time to strike or the time to pass.

But to score a goal, to get the ball past 10 defenders and a goalie, whose sole job requires him to stand in front of the net and prevent the ball from passing through, is much harder than just moving the ball downfield.

That may be why, when a goal is scored, fans of the game erupt with unparalleled jubilation.

As difficult as scoring can be, however, the Sparks Soccer Club managed to do it quite often this past season, finishing with an impressive 10-3-4 record in the 2007 season of the San Diego County Soccer League, which is primarily a heterosexual league.

There aren’t enough gay soccer teams in San Diego to justify putting together an entire league, so in order to practice its sport, the Sparks play against non-gay teams in an intramural league that plays most of its games in the weeks of the early spring.

All games are played according to FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) guidelines. FIFA is the international governing body of the sport of soccer, worldwide.

Even though the season is over, according to the Sparks’ Web site, www.sparkssoccer.org, the team continues to practice its craft in open practices on Sundays at 10 a.m. in the large, grassy area at Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street in Balboa Park. The club’s Web site says it’s looking for new players of all skill levels to come and join the fun.