You can learn a heck of a lot about the world by following soccer. Case in point: Yugoslavia. When I began following soccer in the early 1970s, all that I knew about Yugoslavia was from the history books — the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo that triggered World War I and the rise of Tito, who kicked the Soviets out of Yugoslavia. I didn’t realize that how complicated the Yugoslavia situation was until the Toronto Metros became something called the Metros-Croatia in 1975. The NASL had fought hard to overcome the image of soccer in North America as an ethnic sport, but it had no choice but to accept the Metros-Croatia when Toronto Croatia, an area club, offered to bale out the ailing Metros. The crowning moment for the Toronto Croatians — and a source of embarrassment for the NASL — came in 1976 when the Metros-Croatia won the Soccer Bowl. You can talk about the English and German influence on American soccer, but no country its size has had greater impact than Yugoslavia. The Oakland Clippers, champions when pro soccer kicked off in 1967, had Mike Stojanovic, Gabbo Gavric and Ilija Mitic. In later years, the Cosmos’ Vladislav Bogicevic was the class of MLS midfielders. Steve Zungul, born in the Croatia port of Split, was the dominant player in the indoor MISL. A host of players from Yugoslavia followed Zungul indoors, notably U.S. World Cup ’98 vet Preki. Bora Milutinovic, coach of the United States at the ’94 World Cup, is a Serb, but he ignored ethnic affiliations to launch the international careers of two of the top young American players — Jovan Kirovski, whose parents are Macedonian, and Ante Razov, who has roots in Croatia. If only all you knew about Yugoslavia was that its soccer players go by their nickname, “The Brazilians of Europe.”