An introduction to the 'Beautiful Game'

To appreciate the World Cup soccer tournament, it is not necessary to know that Pele's given name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Or that a pitch is common vernacular for the game's playing surface.

The event is simple enough, and significant enough, to be throughly arresting: Urgently contested, widely followed. National teams representing 32 nations, playing in nine different South African cities to an estimated global television audience of more than 26 billion, will vie for the quadrennial tournament's prized championship trophy.

Still, there remains - at least among the American sporting public - a certain number of soccer novices, only vaguely aware of the sport and its premier spectacle.

Herewith, then, a guide:

The World Cup really is a global championship. While the so-called World Series has only a 1/30th chance of involving a non-U.S. participant (the Toronto Blue Jays), and the Super Bowl crowns its "world champion" by always matching two American-based teams, the World Cup draws from a pool of 208 nations, 16 more than belong to the United Nations. It took three years of qualifying play to winnow down to the 32 finalists who begin Cup play this week.

'Soccer.' The word comes from what the English long ago called "associated football." "Associated" was shortened to "assoc." and then to "soccer." Most of the world now just calls the sport "football."

Bicycle kick. Perhaps the sport's most dazzling shot, in which a player lunges himself, headfirst in reverse, toward a prone position while kicking the ball backward over his head.

Being carded. A yellow card is issued to a player for a serious foul - a player is "booked," his name written in the referee's little book. A red card is given for a second serious foul or for a grievous foul, resulting in expulsion - he is "sent off."

Offsides. Occurs whenever an offensive player is closer to the goal than any opposing player (except the goalkeeper) at the moment the ball is played to him.

Penalty area. The rectangular box in which the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands. If an offensive player is fouled within the penalty area, he is awarded a penalty kick from a spot 12 yards from the goal.

Corner kick. A kick from either corner in the attacking half of the field. It is awarded whenever the defense last touches the ball before it goes out of bounds behind the goal line.

Set piece. Any play, such as a corner kick or free kick, that begins after a stoppage.

David Beckham. The celebrity-magazine star and paparazzi favorite, married to a former Spice Girl, who would have been the first man to play in a fourth consecutive World Cup for England had he not ruptured an Achilles' tendon in March.

The 'Hand of God.' The infamous explanation given by Argentine superstar Diego Maradona for how he scored against England in the 1986 World Cup after Maradona clearly punched the ball past the advancing goalkeeper with his fist rather than his head. (A throughly illegal move, but the referee missed it.)

Some of soccer's sacred record, by the way, is not even known to the most knowledgeable in the sport. The Brazilian legend Pele is not sure of his singular nickname's origin. Though there now is a Portuguese word, "Pelada,'' for the small, bare fields of pickup soccer games, Pele has said the expression, Pelada, for a barefoot game, did not yet exist when he was a boy. Others point to the Portuguese "pe leve,'' for "lightfoot,'' as a more logical root.

Whatever. Just shout "Ole! Ole! Ole!" and you will fit right in.