Who's ready for the World Cup?

[yourchoice]

For this American viewer who admittedly is just now trying to better learn and enjoy the game, what drives me crazy is it seems in order to get a call you must embellish the foul. In hockey, the embellishment itself would be a penalty, and for other professional North American sports, embellishment is generally frowned upon. In football (American ), if a receiver is held but still makes the catch, they can decline the penalty. It seems to me, with soccer, if you don't go down and try to play through the foul, the foul is not called.

A serious question, is this part of the rules of soccer, either "by the book" or just generally accepted? If so, I'll probably be continuing my every four years viewing.