For Michigan men’s varsity soccer coach Steve Burns, the FIFA World Cup is a special event.

As a former player and now as a coach, Burns has had many on-field experiences that have shaped his life and career. But as a pure fan of the game, the World Cup has given Burns indelible memories. The world’s largest sporting event has at different points in his life opened his eyes to the world, offered validation in his career path, and been a source of great pride.

In 1978, Burns was 12 and his love for the soccer was just starting. He kept up with World Cup in Argentina through Soccer Digest, weekly periodical.

“I would go to the 7-11, which was right around the corner from my house, whenever that magazine came out on a Monday, or whenever that was and just devour it,” Burns said.

Living in East Lansing, Burns recalls one game was televised from the 1978 World Cup, the final between the host nation and the Netherlands, which Argentina won, 3-1.

“I don’t remember any of the players, I don’t remember the game, I just remember this image of this huge stadium, packed full of people and confetti just filling the air,” Burns said. “That’s when I started to understand how big this thing was.”

Sixteen years later, when the World Cup came to the United States., Burns was just cutting his teeth as a coach when the U.S. beat heavily favored Columbia and advanced to the Round of 16.

“We were still a soccer minnow at that point, we had problems in 1990 beating Grenada. Grenada is the size of a friggin’ island out in Lake Michigan, so it was that image that you have of yourself. All the negative things that always come out in the press suddenly didn’t feel like a deterrent anymore,” Burns said. “We were growing as a soccer nation. Soccer was the sport that I chose to make a career in, and it just felt like validation.”

That 1994 World Cup is, for many of Burns’ current crop of players, their first World Cup memory. Senior captain Chase Tennant, who grew up in Rochester Hills, remembers the hoards of people from all over the world converging on his hometown for games at the Pontiac Silverdome.

“I knew it was huge, I just really didn’t understand. I had just started play, and I just remember asking my parents why it was so busy,” Tennant said.

Fellow senior captain Alex Wood - an unapologetic Italian supporter - is too young to remember the 1994 World Cup. He, however, was fortunate enough to be living in Germany during the 1998 World Cup in France.

“Soccer was just kind of elevated to that extra level. Being in Europe and being very close to the host country,” said Wood, who watched the game with 40 or so family and friends “jam packed in front of this little TV in the living room.”

“All the kids were my age and at halftime, we went out in the yard and played soccer until we were called back in as the game started again,” Wood recalls.

But even that memory, or watching his favorite team win in 2006 - Wood gets a free pass for rooting for Italy over the U.S. as his mother’s side of the family is from the old country and he was raised speaking nothing but Italian at home - he said paled in comparison to his experience just weeks ago.

Wood was working at the University of Michigan soccer camp and saw the next generation of youth players have their memories etched by the drama of the tournament. About 230 kids between the ages 7 and 14 stopped camp early and filed into a University of Michigan cafeteria to watch the U.S. take on Algeria.

“These young kids were absolutely engrossed in the game, drawn into the game. And these are kids whose attention spans are sometimes 10 or 15 minutes,” Burns said.

If the campers’ transfixed attention was surprising, their reaction to Landon Donovan’s game-winning goal was nothing short of inspiring.

“Shirts were flying off, people were running around as if they had just won the lottery,” Wood said. “It was absolutely phenomenal, and I will not forget it for quite some time.”

“Literally, I shed tears,” Burns said. “Tears of pride, knowing that another generation on top of all the other generations, and you see it on YouTube with people’s reactions similar to what we saw with those campers, the sport continues to grow.”

University of Michigan senior Matthew Peven is taking advantage of the piqued interest in soccer and hoping to parlay it into enthusiasm for the 2010 Wolverine season. Peven launched a student-based soccer fan group, the Michigan Ultras, which will have a party for Sunday's World Cup final at the Packard Pub, located on 640 Packard Street. He hopes to use the event as a launching point to get students involved in the Michigan soccer team.

“The main goal of the group is to get more students involved,” said Peven. The Michigan Ultras Facebook page boosts 370 followers and Peven recently launched a website, where he hopes to publicize future events and publish cheers for games and is working directly with the team to get involved in promotions and Welcome Week activities.

“In the past its been much more community fans as opposed to student fans,” Peven said. “The goal for the season is to get people hearing about the group and getting people out for games.”

With Michigan opening its new $6 million dollar 1,800 seat soccer complex in the fall, increased enthusiasm for the sport due to the World Cup, and an entertaining home schedule, Burns thinks Peven’s efforts are coming at the perfect time.

“I said, ‘Matthew, your name may not go up on any wall or be on any plaque anywhere, but if you are able to pull this off, and by pull I mean creating a ‘Maize Rage’ essentially for our team, you’re forever going down in my history books, and I will talk highly of you in every circle that I’m in,” Burns said.

“It means a whole lot, as a Michigan student to go up to the Big House on a football Saturday and to go to Yost Ice Arena on a hockey weekend and to see the passion and support that thousands of students bring to their peers at a home event,” Wood said. “We’ve been in a period of transition with the fields and stuff like that, and I think with the stadium, it’s going to be that final piece to really grow and nurture this fan section.

“There’s not a better feeling than being able to celebrate a goal by running to fans and being able to celebrate with them,” Wood added. “Unfortunately, goals in soccer are very rare, so when you do get one, there’s definitely a reason to celebrate.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com he can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.