Things that are not the World Cup.

La Furia Roja, Spain's national team, celebrate winning the 2010 World Cup.

It's the height of summer. Your friends are suddenly and oddly soccer-obsessed. Also strangely nationalistic, often for countries in which they were not born. You tag along to escape the heat and for lack of anything better to do. You see the World Cup, and it's thrilling. Drama, skill, passion, heartbreak, triumph. It's awesome. You love it, and you need more. But those easy-to-recognize national teams only play every couple of years. In between there's a confusing mess of domestic leagues, cup competitions, continental championships, one-off trophy games, and international qualifiers. It is daunting. I remember being intimidated when I first started watching, but luckily for you I am no longer that callow, uninitiated youth.

These days, I watch almost anything I can get my proverbial hands on. From everywhere. Europe, Asia, America (North and South), the occasional South African Premier League game. Big teams, small teams, games important and trivial. Online highlights after the games, hosted by weird foreign sites and boasting commentary in languages completely independent of the players or clubs on show. One of my favorite shows, somehow available to me on-demand on TV, is Hallo! Bundesliga. It's a German highlight show, dubbed in English by a Hispanic guy: a perfect microcosm of the sport's worldliness. But the point is that you probably don't want to do what I do. You want to dip your toes in the water, and for that you may need more than a little guidance. Do not worry, grasshopper. Today I begin a series of articles on just that subject. I will do my best to summarize, explore, and recommend the best of everything that's not the World Cup.

First off, you should probably know about the European Championship. It's formatted just like the World Cup, with extensive qualifying campaigns culminating in a 32-team tournament. It happens every four years but conveniently (and intentionally) in between World Cups. South Americans would certainly balk at the idea that Europe is the world's premier soccer continent, but I won't get into that argument now.  The players are top-notch, the national rivalries often explosive. The bottom line is that the skill level is comparable to the World Cup. It's also nearly as popular and won't happen again until 2016, so that's all I'll say about for now.

The next important thing to understand is the relationship and distinction between club and country. Top players all play for clubs; these teams are somewhat analogous to American sports franchises. They are usually privately owned businesses, and their players are contractually obligated employees. Players are relatively free to play where they want regardless of nationality; the best teams can seem like the United Nations. Clubs participate in competitions overseen by national governing bodies. The most prominent of these competitions are annual leagues, in which clubs accumulate points over the course of a season; the club with the most points is that league's (and usually the corresponding country's) champion. While the league is going on, clubs will also compete in knockout tournaments. England's FA Cup is the oldest such competition; Spain's Copa del Rey and Gemany's DFB-Pokal are other examples. South American soccer is somewhat more complicated, with multiple leagues taking place over the course of the year. A high finish in a domestic league can grant entrance to additional prestigious, lucrative continental competitions; likewise, a low finish can mean relegation to a lower division for the next season.

The just-mentioned continental competitions are fantastic. Essentially, the champions of all the leagues play each other. It's like a fantasy World Cup, but totally real and totally serious. Europe's UEFA Champions League is considered the pinnacle of club soccer. Its "little brother," the Europa League (for teams that aren't quite good enough for the UCL), is decried as an also-ran but also serves up fantastic fare.With all these competitions, top clubs may play 70 matches a year, of which just over half are normal league games.

And then international soccer comes wading into the mess. Club and country are independent of one another, and have a sometimes difficult relationship. It is considered a high honor to be selected to your country's team; players that retire from international  play or refuse a call-up (for reasons other than health) can become national pariahs. Leagues have breaks in play for international matches, but tensions remain. The extra matches further strain overworked players, and clubs do not like footing the bill for injuries sustained on international duty.

But the two continue to coexist, simply because neither is going away any time soon.

Still confused? Do not despair! Next begins a country-by-country rundown of each major league, complete with my utterly biased preferences and recommendations.