Editor’s Note: David Gerhold lives in Magdeburg, Germany, and is a student at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. He worked for the Iowa State Daily from October 2013 to February 2014 as an internship for his university.

Offside. Slide tackles. Bicycle kicks. A year ago, these terms would have sounded like gibberish to most Americans. In the last few weeks, however, there has been a shift in the world of American sports. No longer is soccer that weird European thing and no longer is the American soccer team the one that always bites the bullet in the first couple of games. Soccer has actually become popular in the United States.

As the American soccer fanbase grows, people start to adopt some of the typical European behaviors during World Cups. Most notably, they start to pick up on the phenomenon of public viewing.

Technically, this is nothing new. Every year, a lot of American families and friends come together and watch the Super Bowl in a living room or perhaps even in a bar. However, European countries, especially Germany, take it a step further.

Ever since the legendary 2006 World Cup, large crowds gather in front of huge screens in the middle of public places to watch the game together. In Berlin, the number of fans participating can reach a few thousand people. Fan miles like these can be found in pretty much every city in Germany.

For most fans, these events are less about actually watching the game as they are about being together — a large community coming together celebrating its favorite sport. The pictures of thousands of fans together in one place wearing the German colors with pride went around the world.

Now, as soccer is becoming more and more popular in the United States, thanks to the new men’s national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, Americans have seemed to pick up on the strange European customs of this strange European sport. The German excitement for soccer seems to be contagious. Americans watched the duels of the surprisingly strong American team in anticipation, they cheered whenever someone won the ball and every single header duel was accompanied by loud rounds of applause.

Americans are pretty late to the party. They can’t quite grasp the sport and its fascination yet; TV experts struggle to explain the different matches and the tactics that come into play there. But the enthusiasm for soccer is growing in America.

It’s an enthusiasm different from most football games. The matches are much more action-packed and the different strengths of each team make for some tense encounters. Soccer is a sport where it’s not about winning yards and moving forward in a tactical fashion. It’s about quick reactions and fast passing, which makes the games extremely exciting to watch.

German fans, who have loved and embraced their football even outside the World Cup, look at this newly found American excitement with amusement. It seems naive and almost ridiculous that the United States celebrate this sport that is hundreds of years old as if it was something new. Seeing Americans struggle with soccer terminology is funny and part of more than a couple of jokes. Still, Americans might be late to the party, but they are still more than welcome to join it.

Before the 2014 World Cup, the American team never seemed to have a chance against mighty soccer teams such as Italy, France or Brazil. With the new coach Klinsmann however, they now have a German trainer, who previously had put the German team back on track for the 2006 World Cup. Klinsmann is determined to do the same thing with the American team, which, up until this World Cup, has been an underdog up against powerful adversaries. And Americans do love their underdog stories, which is why the fans were cheering for them in a manner similar to typical Hollywood sports movies.

Even though the team lost against Belgium in the quarterfinals, one thing remains certain: Klinsmann and his team have left their mark in the international soccer community. They earned the respect of the big soccer nations. Now they are hungry for more, as are the new soccer fans in America. Because almost every sports movie about underdogs has its happy ending.