I learned a great deal broadcasting the World Cup this month for E$PN. For the rest of you American baseball fans, that’s a soccer tournament – soccer, the most popular sport in the world! Just like America’s national pastime, Major League Baseball on E$PN, the world’s national pastime is soccer. Football. Futbol. Calcio. The beautiful game!

And just like we baseball fans, soccer enthusiasts have their own big ideas about role players and superstars. And when I think back to the most amazing moment of last month’s tournament, I think about a humid night in Gelsenkirchen two weeks ago.

Portugal vs. England. It’s an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel, 0-0 in the bottom of the ninth (or the 86th minute, as they call it in Europe). Portugal brings in the young Helder Postiga, 23 years old, for their captain, Luis Figo. It’s a very controversial decision; you could hear a rumble in the crowd, as the Portugal fans wondered what on earth their coach was thinking. Even our own Marcelo Balboa, veteran of three World Cups, could barely contain his anger.

But I knew better. “Marcelo,” I said during the commercial, “hold on a second.” I may not know much about soccer, but I know a thing or two about closers. And Helder Postiga was the closer.

Sure enough, the game is decided by penalty kicks. And who steps up to the plate but that very Postiga, and sure enough, he slams a 99-mph walk-off rocket right out of the park. Game over.

After the game I began talking with the E$PN Deportes crew, and they told me a very funny thing about that Postiga kid. Apparently, back in Portugal he’s a major disappointment. They call him the “Kaz Matsui of soccer.” He got sent to the minors after a very bad start to the 2005 season and eventually had to play in France. France! But sure enough, there was Helder Postiga when it counted, scoring the winning run on soccer’s biggest stage.

Says a lot about France, doesn’t it?

When I heard about the Reds/Nationals trade, I got thinking about Helder Postiga. Many baseball fans and commentators are waking up this morning criticizing Reds general manager Wayne Krivsky for trading two of the Reds’ best hitters, Felipe Lopez and Austin Kearns, to Washington for a bunch of middle relievers.

As ESPN’s lead baseball announcer, I think that’s bull.

I remember a crisp spring day in Phoenix four months ago. We all do.

What baseball fan can forget Gary Majewski’s gutsy performance in the fourth inning of the United States’ hard-fought loss to Canada last March? Like so many World Cup heroes, Majewski was summoned from the bullpen when the USA pitchers faltered. Dontrelle Willis is a perennial Cy Young contender. Al Leiter has three World Series rings. Neither of them could stop the mighty Canadian bats. But then, shrugging off his yellow pinny, came Gary Majewski. Pressed into service, he shut down some of the biggest names in baseball – names like Corey Koskie, Stubby Clapp, and Pete LaForest – to the tune of a single run in nearly two innings of relief work. Re-energized by the work of this plucky 25-year-old, the USA retaliated with five runs in the fifth inning. Although they went on to lose the game, they learned a very valuable lesson: just like Helder Postiga, Gary Majewski is for real.

So what’s the big deal, naysayers? Say what you want about Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez, but they haven’t been tested in international competition. Gary Majewski has. If you’re prone to nitpicking about Majewski’s 3.58 ERA, look no further than the WBC, where his ERA was a full two-tenths of a run lower against the greatest baseball teams in the world. Just like the great Alessandro Del Piero, Gary Majewski is ready to shine in the spotlight and carry the Cincinnati Reds on to victory.

Gary Majewski may not kiss other men on the cheek or headbutt the opposition, but he has everything in common with the soccer superstars who played so hard for their countries this month in Germany. As for Lopez and Kearns? They may be Nationals, but they’ll never be national heroes.

Dave O’Brien, the voice of the New York Mets, is in his fifth season as an E$PN play-by-play announcer.