Soccer, or football is the most popular sport in almost every country except the USA. It is hardly a "third world" sport since all of the best teams this year were from Europe, which is the opposite of the third world. At this year's tournament you saw team good teams from every continent. Of course Brazil and Argentina are always good. Countries like Japan and Korea have good teams. There were African teams. No other other sport even comes remotely close to soccer across the world.
Also, the USA not making the Cup is not really that embarrassing. Italy always has a good team and has won the whole thing recently and they did not make it this year.
I didn't grow up watching soccer and I'll never love it like basketball, football and baseball. But I've learned to enjoy it over the years. It's really pretty cool. There are no commercials! I also like that in soccer you see all types of players with different skills. In some American cities that have good MLS teams it has a large following.