What will it take to get you to upgrade to HDTV? Here at Ranchero Indebto, there’s a major event on the horizon that has us poised and ready to take the HDTV plunge … any day now (and sooner much better than later). What’s that event, you ask? Well, if you live anywhere but the United States of America, there’s a very good chance you’ve figured that out already …

I’m talking World Cup, baby. The sport we Americans stubbornly call soccer (and most other folks call football). Yes indeed, footie is big in our house.

But most Americans just don’t get soccer … for oh-so-many reasons.

One of the biggest reasons? The quality of television coverage. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV, but the quality of the picture sometimes leaves much to be desired. And while ESPN may shortchange us on their week-to-week soccer coverage, their promise of HDTV World Cup coverage couldn’t be sweeter.

I spoke with a DirecTV rep the other day. I had feared the worst about the HDTV upgrade before making the call. My fears were quickly put aside. While we’ll need to have a new dish and HDTV receiver installed, those costs are minor … just over a hundred bucks. The monthly fees for HDTV will only tack on another five bucks a month.

I’m passing on the official DirecTV HDTV DVR, however, as they’re asking for an astronomical amount of money for the beast … enough $$$ to buy a whole new PC. No thanks.

We still haven’t settled on a big screen TV. With any luck, that’ll all be settled this week …

We’ll be watching Team USA with our fingers crossed (in our replica soccer jerseys, of course), hoping that they’ll somehow claw their way out of that group of death. And once they’re toast (hey, it’s inevitable), we’ll be rooting for our international favorites.

But it’s safe to say that my boy won’t make the mistake of wearing his Ronaldinho national team jersey into our favorite pizza place, again …