It was pretty eye-opening to me as a parent – the kind who doesn’t really have her kids in any kinds of sports programs – to see how intense other moms and dads can be when it comes to their kids’ soccer activity. For some, it’s more than just a simple way to get good exercise, build great sportsmanship and fill the after-school hours with something else to do besides play video games.

To those parents and coaches, soccer can represent a way of life that compels children to one day play in the types of international competitions that draw legions of fans that watch the games in sports bars and helps working hours cease and businesses close temporarily during the World Cup in certain parts of the world.

The best games to help the soccer fun continue off the field

If you want the strategy-learning of the “futball” game to keep going in a fun way after the cleats are tossed in the mud room, check out some of the best offerings in the iTunes App Store surrounding the topic.

There’s Dream League Soccer, which enjoys nearly 30,000 reviews that have given it nearly a perfect 5-star rating. That simulation game helps you build your own teams, and users love it because it brings the FIFA action that lets players rise from Division 3 to Division 1 teams.

If that’s too intense, app games like Slide Soccer are also well reviewed and appear less intimidating. The best thing about soccer being such a popular sport – specifically so in the wake of the runaway popularity of the recent World Cup Games – is that you can simply type the word “soccer” into the iTunes App Store or the Google Play Store and be presented with a long list of games to choose from that will suit your fancy.

It’s the same deal if you’re searching for soccer games on Amazon’s video games section, where you’ll find Kinect Sports Ultimate Collection has the best average customer reviews, even though soccer is only one of the 13 sports contained in the collection.

Other than that, games like FIFA 14 and Pro Evolution Soccer rule the roost, that is, until the FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Edition is released on September 23, 2014. (Right now it’s still available in a pre-order status.)

All in all, I had to respect the game and realize that some of the parents pushing their kids to perform well in practice and hitting up soccer stores every chance they could get for new gear weren’t necessarily vicariously living through their children.

I learned about little things called “soccer scholarships” and the fact that a happy pastime sport can do a lot to set someone up for a fabulous future. So as long as the dream to become the next big soccer star belongs to the person playing it, I say go for it with all your might.