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The FIFA World Cup is hands down the biggest single-event sporting competition in the world. While the United States might not be as infected with fútbol fever like the rest of the globe, signs show this is ever-changing. The game between USA and Portugal last Sunday was the highest rated World Cup Match for ESPN, with roughly 18.22 Million fans tuning in. Such a passionate game offers multiple key takeaways that can be translated into some valuable PR lessons.

July 17, 2011 - After an epic run, the U.S. women’s soccer team succumbed to Japan today in the final of the Women’s World Cup tournament. And if you were paying attention to your Twitter stream today, you may have seen an influx of Tweets about the game, which ended in a penalty shootout. Twitter just Tweeted that the Women’s World Cup final scored a new record with 7,196 Tweets per second. Even U.S. President Barack Obama joined in Tweeting about the game. And from the Tweet, “today’s end to the Paraguay/Brazil game is now 2nd with 7,666 TPS.”

The Men’s World Cup soccer tournament last year also achieved record engagement on Twitter at the time. For basis of comparison, last year’s men’s World Cup Final marked the largest period of sustained activity for an event in the service’s history, with over 2,000 Tweets per second (TPS) during the last 15 minutes of the match, and 3,051 tweets per second when Spain scored its winning goal in the final match.