Pedey and Youk may rule in Red Sox Nation, but it’s Pato and Landon who’re bidding to star in the world’s most compelling sports competition. Will the Fenway faithful feel compelled to watch?

Or is there little room in our fan-brain for an event that makes the Super Bowl look like a limp collection of Roman numerals?

Conventional wisdom holds that we’re a Sox/Patriots/Celtics town first, an Everything Else place after that. Conventional wisdom isn’t playing in Saturday’s featured World Cup soccer match, though. It’ll be the USA versus England, live from South Africa and coming to a (high-definition/surround sound/3-D) television set near you.

Notwithstanding the Battle of Bunker Hill angle, these two foes are not the marquee draws in this year’s Cup competition, either. Honk if you love Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Paraguay, Germany, Ghana, Portugal, Ivory Coast, South Korea, or the Netherlands.

“Why should the casual fan care about soccer? Because this is the only game the whole world cares about, that’s why,’’ says Greg Lalas, editor of the website MLSsoccer.com and brother of Alexi Lalas, one of the few American-born soccer players to achieve household name status. To compete economically and socially in the modern world, adds Lalas, “We have to be attuned to the global conversation.’’

Which, for the next few weeks anyway, revolves around fútbol. Followed by Everything Else.

Incidentally, Lalas rejects the argument, a staple of yahoo-talk radio, that soccer is too boring or foreign to take up space in local fans’ hearts and minds. Maybe we can get behind the US Olympic ice hockey team every four years, this argument goes, but at least it has a track record of success. Other than the ’91 and ’99 women’s teams, what has the USA ever won in Cup play?

“The argument about who’s going to watch overlooks the fact that fans exist in small pockets — but that there are many, many such pockets,’’ says Lalas. “The players you’ll be seeing are the best of the best of the best, too. These guys can control a ball with their feet the way Rajon Rondo can control a basketball with his hands.’’

Lalas compares soccer’s domestic fanbase to NASCAR’s, which was long ignored by the mainstream media — until someone started counting eyeballs. And wallets.

In some ways, coverage of the 2010 World Cup looks unavoidable. In addition to 250 hours of programming on ABC, Univision, and a whole alphabet soup of TV channels, there are iPhone apps and websites (e.g. www.msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer) feeding Cup results to hungry fans. Four years ago, when Italy beat France in the finals, 16.9 million Americans tuned in — a threefold increase from 2002 and harbinger of things to come.

Recent history suggests we’ve already learned to love the World Cup and its pageantry, according to Bill Littlefield, host of National Public Radio’s “It’s Only a Game.’’ When America played host in 1994, he notes, stadiums and bars stayed packed long after our guys got booted off the field.

“People in this country love spectacles, college basketball being the best example,’’ says Littlefield. “Fans who know almost nothing about teams get into March Madness office pools and throw parties. And the World Cup is the biggest sports spectacle of all.’’

So when it comes to tuning into Cup action, where’s the beef?

Not enough scoring: “For an ADD culture like ours, soccer is a tough sell,’’ concedes Harrison Stark, co-author of “World Cup 2010: The Indispensable Guide to Soccer and Geopolitics.’’ He agrees that lack of scoring can turn off some viewers, noting that in 2006 Cup play, a measly 2.3 goals per game were scored. But wait, there’s encouraging news. The ball being used this year is lighter and more textured than previous models, causing goaltenders to complain that it could be soccer’s answer to the juiced-up baseball. All together now: GOOOOOAAAAAAAL!!!

If we wanted to watch bad acting, we’d go see “Sex and the City 2’’: Even a rabid soccer fan like Thirsty Scholar pub owner Patrick Cross feels that elite players who flop and feign injury hurt their game’s appeal. Boston fans who’ve watched tough guys like Wes Welker and Kevin Garnett play with real injuries nod in agreement.

Heading the ball in the other direction:

Nothing beats watching a Cup match live with hardcore fans: Like the Super Bowl, Cup contests are best experienced in a frenzied crowd setting, no matter who’s playing. “Go see a game with English fans, who realize they’re doomed, just like Red Sox fans used to,’’ suggests Littlefield. “And then maybe one with Brazilian fans, who just love to party.’’

We are not the world. Really.: “For all their sporting provincialism, Boston sports fans are a pretty cosmopolitan crowd,’’ says Stark. “And we learn a lot about other countries by the way their teams play.’’ Lalas predicts a USA win over England, one that should grab a few headlines away from the Sox and Celtics. Still, don’t expect miracles, he cautions. “A quarterfinal appearance would be fantastic.’’

Joseph P. Kahn can be reached at jkahn@globe.com.