If you were to explain soccer to a Martian, you might say it's a game where two teams try to kick a shared ball into the other team's net. You could get into the gameplay: dribbles, passes, penalties, etc. But that doesn't capture what soccer means.

What about the feelings that the game inspires? The experience of being fused into a roaring crowd, no longer an individual? The fleeting ecstasy when a goal is scored? The joy and despair sparked when the referee blows the full-time whistle?

And that’s just for local teams (equipos). When it comes to competition between national teams (selecciones) — especially in a region where fútbol is tantamount to a religion — it becomes seismic: the fanaticism, the celebrity, the politics, and the corruption. With the World Cup around the corner, it's time to take a look at "the beautiful game" with four stories of soccer in Latin America.

In La caída de River, passion overcomes Atilio Costa Febre as River Plate — one of the most important soccer teams in Argentina — risks relegation from the first division. Atilio has been following River for 21 years, and he's even made a career out of his fervor. He became a sports commentator para contar campeonatos, para calentarse con malos momentos, but he never imagined he'd have to narrate his team's possible downfall. At this pivotal match, he faces a dilemma between remaining professional or being the voice of fans who, like him, are confronting the end of their world.

If you're a soccer fan, you might get what Atilio went through. But if you're thinking that was a touch dramatic, just wait until you listen to La llamada del 10, where soccer fever is dialed up to eleven. Here, we meet Mariano Sinito, a 10-year-old from Rosario, Argentina who's part of the Maradonian Church, the cult of soccer legend Diego Maradona. Mariano is explaining his unusual creed on a kids talk show when he suddenly receives a phone call from his idol. ¡Fah! he exclaims. Siento que estoy tocando el cielo. Estoy conociendo a Dios. But what follows this exciting moment, Mariano will much later recall as un pequeño infierno.

A bigger hell awaits Colombian physical therapist Carolina Rozo in Fuera de lugar, where she falls in, then out of love with the sport. Facing a practicum with a soccer team during her third year at university, all she can think is no, fútbol no, fútbol no, fútbol no, but when she studies the intricacies of the game, she begins to see it in a new light. A month after her graduation, she's overjoyed to accept an unpaid position on the women's national under-17 team. But the coach's unwanted advances quickly turn her excitement into fear. What's worse, she's not his only victim. This story portrays the silences, imbalances of power, bureaucracies, and straight-out dangers of the soccer world.

And while some risk everything for fútbol, Creando un monstruo is about those who wish they could be more into it. That's the case of Peruvian writer Santiago Roncagliolo, a father who's worried about his young son playing with girls and dolls. Santiago understands the implications of being the weird kid — he was the same way when he was younger — so he tries to induce a love of soccer in his son: Lo llevo a plazas donde "casualmente" juegan otros niños. Concentro mi vida social en amigos con hijos futboleros. The outcome of his plan, foreshadowed in the title, is unexpected for Santiago.

Now's the perfect time to learn a bit more about soccer culture in the most soccer-loving region in the world, all while taking your Spanish to the next level.