I was driving up Airport Road here in Abu Dhabi at about 11:30 p.m. (more about the driving thing later), and I saw a crowd gathered outside a restaurant across from the ironically named “Happy Yemen” seafood resto.

Dozens of men, standing and looking at the restaurant window … and it struck me:

They were watching the soccer match. The World Cup soccer match.

The World Cup soccer match involving Brazil and … somebody. It doesn’t really matter who, does it? It’s Brazil.

Which is the slender news peg for an idea that has been banging around in my head for a couple of weeks now.

We are a planet of front-runners.

Ask any 100 soccer fans around the globe who they want to see win the World Cup … and 95 of them will say, “Brazil.”

A few might say “my home country’s team” … but by now hardly anyone’s home country is still in the tournament. And even those who are still playing … if you asked them, “OK, who is your second preference to win?” … about 99 percent of them will say Brazil. (According to my own officially guestimated statistics.)

Well, good for Brazil.

Bad for the planet’s ability to come up with, you know, their own opinion on this. Or be able to find interesting a team that isn’t the perennial favorite.

If the Earth has 6 billion people, Brazil has about 5.8 billion fans. Which is boring. It might be the only concept all races and creeds agree on. “My country right or wrong … but Brazil to win the World Cup!”

Here is where we compare the casual fan rooting for Brazil to the casual fan rooting for the New York Yankees, Manchester United or the U.S. basketball team at the Olympics. For Russian ice-dancers and Chinese weightlifters and Nordiccross-country skiers.

How hard is that? How much thought or understanding of the game does that require. If you said “none” … give yourself a high five.

Do fans really love Brazil’s soccer team? Or do they just love associating themselves with winners?

In the past, backing Brazil could be explained in other ways.

Brazil was a multi-ethnic side before mutli-ethnicity was accepted by governments … much of anywhere. Brazil was a darling of countries in the Non-Aligned Nations Movement, and a sort of Third World country (with some First World accouterments). So there goes Africa,  the Middle East and most of Asia into the Brazil camp.

And, finally, Brazil was perceived to play attractive soccer. That whole “samba” thing and the joga bonito stuff. Having fun, and winning, too.

But let’s look at reality, circa 2010.

Brazil is by no means the only multi-ethnic team anymore. Not nearly. Actually, it was nearly impossible to find a uni-ethnic team in this tournament. Italy, maybe? South Korea, perhaps? But we’re about down with that list.

OK, the non-aligned thing. Is anybody aligned to anything anymore? The Cold War ended two decades ago. All we have anymore is the U.S. and its handful of legitimate allies … and then about 200 countries who wish America ill. It’s not like fans have to choose between the Soviet Bloc and the Free World.

And then we come to the joga bonito … which is so 20th century.

Brazil is living on reputation here. It’s glory days of panache and entertainment were just past the middle of the last century. The 2002 team had a little of it, but since then?

Brazil now is coached by Dunga (given name: Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri) who is about as carefree as a heart attack. (Check that mugshot, on the link.)

Back when he played in the World Cup, in 1990, 1994 and 1998, he was the grim enforcer in the middle of those free-wheeling scorers, and he brings to this Brazil team a tight structure that close observers suggest make Brazil no better than a dozen other teams — just with better players.

If you want joga bonito, you might be better-served looking at Holland, which seems more interested in scoring and less-interested in defending — like Brazil, back in olden days. Brazil no longer dances you into collapse, it bludgeons you with big, physical defenders making long runs into the attack. See: Brazil 3, Chile 0.)

So, for those who have not been paying attention, the only real reason left for supporting Brazil is … “because they probably will win.”

Which makes us a planet of front-runners.

As serious sports fans know, the expression “front-runner” is a particularly harsh one. It is defined by wiktionary.com as “the most likely winners in a contest, election, etc.”

Front-runners often are know-nothings who attach themselves to whatever is hot, and serious fans despise them as bandwagon-climbing dunderheads.

Thus, I must say … I am embarrassed for a planet that can’t summon the imagination to root for anyone but Brazil. I mean, Argentina? Germany? Holland? All three have been more fun to watch here than has Brazil.

But it was Brazil that drew the crowd of guys craning their necks outside a restaurant as midnight approached. Everyone in the UAE loves Brazil. Why not? Everyone everywhere does.

I am disappointed. Disillusioned. This is boring, all of us on the same side of the World Cup. I think I will take this opportunity declare my preference for champion of 2010 … someone other than Brazil.

Go, Holland!