The World Cup fired you up, and you’re still fighting the shakes when you don’t wake up to a soccer game each Saturday morning. Even worse, Wayne Rooney’s wonder strike over the weekend has you wishing you’d seen it live. You’ve reached your breaking point and have decided you want to follow an English Premier League club, but you don’t know where to start. The best way to teach anything is to relate the material, and thus, we’ve sorted out the closest American comparisons for each of the 20 English clubs to make your choice that much easier. They’re arranged by their current table position with three months left in the season. And don’t worry, there are zero vuvuzelas in the Premier League.

The most common comparison you’ll see, and there’s a reason. The biggest, most popular club in the Premier League shuffles in stars with ease and ponies up the cash for them, as well. Red Devil fans love their club and know they’re the villains, and opposing fans all join together in their hatred of Manchester United. You could even compare the clubs’ longest tenured core players. In 2010, the Yankees had Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera –- a group that had played for the club dating back to 1996. Meanwhile, Manchester United has had the duo of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes playing together since 1994, with Giggs making his first appearance all the way back in 1990. What Jeter is to the Yanks, Giggs is to United. And if you were picking a baseball team to root for out of nowhere, everyone would hate you if you picked the Yankees. The same holds true for United.

Arsenal has won the league 13 times. St. Louis has 10 titles. Arsenal’s last league title was in 2004. The Cardinals’ last title was in 2006. Both are led by stars that may be on their way out after this season (Cesc Fabregas and Albert Pujols), both reside in two of the newest stadiums in their league and both have a manager (Arsene Wenger and Tony LaRussa) that is lauded for his achievements and openly questioned by his skeptics. Opposing fans don’t really hate Arsenal or the Cardinals (except rivals Tottenham and Chicago) because it’s hard not to appreciate the skills and the seemingly traditional way in which the results are achieved.

Defined mainly as playing second fiddle to neighboring clubs (Manchester United and the Yankees). City has won two trophies (FA Cup in '69 and League Cup in '76) while the Mets have won two World Series ('69 and '86). Both clubs spend rampantly without much to show for it. City is the richest club on earth (recently purchased by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan). The Mets had the fifth-highest MLB payroll in 2010. Both are considered to break through to elite status every year, but always fall short.

Spurs last won a league title in 1961. The Jets last won a Super Bowl in 1969. And for years since those titles, both have competed with the best some years and floundered in others. Lately, they’re both making a push to the top, with the Jets reaching two straight AFC championship games and Spurs qualifying for the Champions League with a top four finish last year. Led by dynamic -– if not somewhat misunderstood –- young talents in Gareth Bale and Mark Sanchez, and two blustery coaches that please every interviewer that points a microphone at them (Harry Redknapp and Rex Ryan), the teams relish the spotlight. Trouble is, they can’t seem to stand the heat of it all at the end.

Name a team that was largely unsuccessful for decades while remaining in the picture, but in the last decade has seen an incredible surge in both success and bandwagon fans. These are your best answers from both sides of the pond. Sure, Chelsea is run by an eccentric Russian billionaire in Roman Abramovich that spends money on whoever the hottest commodity is at the time, and that’s not exactly the approach John Henry, Tom Werner and Theo Epstein take in Boston, but the Red Sox do have the second-highest payroll in Major League Baseball. Frank Lampard and David Ortiz are hailed by each of the clubs’ fans as often as they are questioned by the local sportswriters, and both clubs have elbowed out the kings of their league (Manchester United and the Yankees) to share the top dog spotlight.

Everyone jumps to compare Liverpool to the Red Sox, mostly because of a storied tradition, working class port cities and the fact that they’re both owned by the same people. But really, the best comparison is the Celtics. Liverpool ran through the 60s, 70s and 80s in much the same way that the Celtics did, and were led by a revered father figure (Bill Shankly) that has become a legend in the game and among the fans, much like Red Auerbach. Portly coaches continued the tradition in Bob Paisley and Tommy Heinsohn (after Bill Russell), and former players (Kenny Dalglish and K.C. Jones) would eventually win titles with team at the ends of the eras. Since that run, though, the teams have only managed a blip here or there (Liverpool with a Champions League title and another finals appearance, and Boston with an NBA title and one other appearance).

Both clubs have had their struggles recently (although Sunderland has made the surprise run of this season). Sunderland finished the 2003 campaign with a then-record low of 19 points and spent years bouncing between the second division and Premiership. The Bengals have only had two winning seasons in the past 20. Both clubs are stationed in hard-working towns and are known as blue-collar clubs. Both clubs also feature stripes as predominate parts of their respective uniforms.