The world knows something we don’t know.

While Americans continue to ignore futbol, the world’s game, a soccer obsession is growing in the Southern Tier of New York.

It is natural that in a country of short attention spans, soccer has not fully caught on. Unlike the American sports of baseball and football, soccer has very little downtime. Fans must stay glued to the action at all times, lest they miss the crucial moment when a team scores a goal.

Much of soccer’s 90 minutes are filled with back and forth, free-flowing action. Minutes pass by without significant changes in the game’s outlook.

And then, when it’s least expected, something happens. It could be a mistake, like a missed tackle or a pass that goes out of bounds. It could be a brilliant move of skill, like a midfielder streaking to the goal or threading the needle of the defense with a pass to his striker. In mere seconds, hearts on the field, on the sidelines and in the stands have started racing. There’s a scoring chance.

But in soccer, unlike in any other sport, a scoring chance is just that: chance. The difference between a goal and a shot that sails out of bounds can be as small as the tips of a goalkeeper’s fingers. Luck often supersedes talent and preparation.

And so in soccer, unlike in any other sport, we sometimes applaud failure — nearly-goals and nearly-wins are almost as valuable as the real thing. Teams take pride in playing the game the right way, even if that is not ultimately the winning way.

On the field of the Bearcats Sports Complex, Paul Marco’s Bearcats play the right way. When he first engineered a worst-to-first-place turnaround in the America East from 2002 to 2003, Marco instilled in his teams the value of playing with grit and determination. The blue-collar Bearcats were known for playing every minute of the game as if it were the last round of a heavyweight championship bout. The team started winning America East titles, but the product on the field was sometimes ugly.

“The area of strength that our team had then was a competitive spirit that was second to no one,” Marco said.

Once Binghamton moved to its new stadium, Marco opened up his offense and recruited a different kind of player. Out with the 0-0 draws and 1-0 wins, in with striker Cameron Keith’s hat tricks. The Bearcats like to score early, and score often.

“Our talent has increased. The speed with which our guys can execute skills is better than it was. The more talent you have, the less you have to use that competitive spirit,” Marco said. “That’s the challenge for our team: as we get more talented players, we try not to forget what the Bearcats are known for. When we’re lacking in competitiveness or talent, we don’t play well. When we have both, we’re a very good soccer team.”

The transition to a high-octane team was no accident. It reflects the way Marco approached soccer as a player.

“If you look at me, I don’t look like a bone-crushing defender. When I played, I played up front. I enjoyed the ball. That comes out in my coaching: the love of the game, valuing the ball and making creative decisions,” Marco said.

Binghamton soccer is starting to share another trait of its European counterparts: devoted fans.

Last year, the first at the Bearcats Sports Complex, Binghamton averaged 1,299 fans per game, one of the best figures in college soccer. The BU Hooligans, Binghamton’s student section, prepares Euro-inspired soccer chants and sings the entire game. In a region where 100 fans are the norm, the Bearcats have captured the attention of the college soccer world.

So while Americans spend the fall watching football, Marco watches the growth of futbol happening from his office.

“If my wife said to me, ‘You’ve been bad, stay at the office and don’t come home tonight,’ that wouldn’t be punishment. We’ve got soccer games on all the time on the TV at the office. I love being around the game for a living.”