Tag Archives: mexico

ten words or less #68

Posted on by
Reply
Cristiano Ronaldo's headed goal against Manchester United

ronaldo was literally jumping through the roof over all of the football on tap during this stretch of the year.

Without a shadow of a doubt, mid-February has to be one of my favorite portions of the entire footballing calendar. The major European leagues are entering the home stretch of their seasons, with the races for final league places really heating up. The Champions League knockout stages have kicked off, presenting us with loads of truly world class football to admire. Add in a sprinkling of World Cup qualifiers here and there, and factor in that MLS First Kick is just around the corner, and you can start to understand why I’m so infatuated with a month normally hated by most American fans.

But with so much soccer to take in, my very A.D.D. brain often has a hard time digesting it all. Which means my efforts to pump out full-length postings becomes infinitely harder. I’ve probably started a dozen new drafts in the last week; my guess is only around a third of those will end up seeing the light of day.

So while I strain out the garbage and identify the gold in my writings, I present you with a sampling of my favorite links from the last week. Bon appétit.

All goal line technology implementations handled by just two officials.
- bigdsoccer.com

How “what could have been” in Manchester was derailed. – inbedwithmaradona.com

Jorge Campos-inspired posters remind me of the 90′s. – behance.com

For a few Nigerian prostitutes, it’s time to pay up. – dirtytackle.net

This Genoa centenary shit just exudes retro awesome. – footballshirtculture.com

Screw? Loose. Other shoe? Waiting to drop. – guardian.co.uk

I love soccer and dinosaurs. I don’t love them together. – kckrs.com

Just five minutes playing in Turkey… Drogba gonna Drog. – youtube.com

The official MLS #TrueColors posters are (mostly) pretty sweet. – facebook.com

See: Move to capitalize on Indian market exposure. – nikebiz.com

About these ads

a momentous baby step

Posted on by
1

As the boos and whistles rained down from the rafters, things must have finally felt different for the American players standing on the Estadio Azteca pitch.

Michael Orozco Fiscal Scores Against Mexico

while i can understand the boisterous celebrations on the pitch, the boisterous over reaction by some fans is another matter.

Never before had a US men’s side left the cavernous Azteca — or any other stadium in Mexico for that matter —  with more goals than their hosts. But on a fateful August night in 2012, the US Men’s National Team finally notched their first ever win in twenty-five trips across our Southern border.

Having finally rid themselves of the monkey that had been on their backs for a pathetically long three-quarters of a century, the lifted weight must have been tangible to the players. We’d come agonizingly close before — most notably in a World Cup qualifier back in 2009 — but couldn’t ever quite close it out. Now no longer winless away to El Trí, the psychological advantage held by our neighboring hosts can’t seem near as daunting as it once had. Which is good, because the boys needed a boost in their fortunes.

Prior to the win, the US had been on a four-match winless skid against our hated rivals, dating back to February of 2009. And while the momentum gained from a win is good enough on its own, the timing couldn’t have been better for the national team’s ego: Klinsmann’s camp had to have been feeling a little insecure about things considering our neighbor’s recent trophy haul. Mexico are the current holders of the Gold Cup, U-17 World Cup and the Olympic gold medal, and they finished third in the U-20 World Cup as well. Oh yeah, the US failed to qualify in each of those last two tournaments, too. And adding insult to injury, our ladies’ continued success only further emphasizes the mens’ mediocrity. So if nothing else, the win was needed to help restore some of our pride, and I can’t imagine the players not feeling that difference.

But if things didn’t feel all that different for the players — assuming social media is a reliable social barometer — my fellow American fans certainly felt that way.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit I felt a rush of pride when the US players were celebrating on the Azteca pitch. It was a long time coming, and something I’ve long looked forward to enjoying. But did you read any of the reactions pouring forth from the mouth of the average fans on Twitter or Facebook? To describe them in just a single word: overexuberance. To describe the celebrations in more words, but more bluntly: you would have thought we had just won the fucking World Cup.

If I lived in an urban setting, I’d bet I would have heard celebratory chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-AAAAA!!!” echoing from the rooftops for the first time in ages… well, at least since the Olympics ended just three days earlier. Everyone seems to love game winner Michael Orozco Fiscal now, even though many — myself included — had previously called for his exclusion from future USMNT camps not long ago. Some also seem to have forgiven Brek Shea for mailing it in for the last three months, again anointing him the chosen one for a second time. We’re back on top of the world!!!!!

But while last Wednesday’s win in Mexico was historic, I feel like I need to remind everyone of what of our actual situation. Otherwise, some idiot will go and lodge a foolish bet on the boys taking home the trophy at Brazil 2014.

For starters, let’s take a look at that new and improved all-time record in Mexico: yeah, it’s only 1-23-1. We’ve gone into their country and emerged victors a single time, yet we’re gloating like the balance in power has been restored. Our fans’ arrogance looks even more brash once you remember that the Mexicans actually have a very respectable record when playing on our side of the fence: 8-13-10. And before you go saying something like “Well, USA-Mexico games in the states are effectively home matches for them anyway with all the fans they bring”… well, don’t. Those overzealous fans celebrating like banshees might want to ask themselves why they haven’t been filling the stands for those matches themselves before they start making excuses for our performances. It’s a little embarrassing to see us celebrate without thinking about that.

Mexico's Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez

had chicharito not missed a sitter, the USMNT could still be 0-fer in mexico.

Secondly, this was a single friendly match. It could have easily gone the other way if not for some spectacular Tim Howard goalkeeping and some unlucky Chicharito finishing. Though, there were a lot of positives to take from it, too.

It was impressive to grab a win when Klinsmann fielded a relatively inexperienced squad, short on key veterans such as Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley. Even more so because the Mexicans fielded a near-full strength side themselves. You could see glimpses of our German manager’s designs to have the defense playing a higher line, and they did a respectable job of keeping their shape and staying compact against the Mexican onslaught. Gomez, too, appears to be growing into an indispensable part of our attack.

All positive things. But they all took place in a pointless match that meant little aside from boosting collective team ego and providing temporary bragging rights for the winning side’s fans. Mexico’s fans didn’t even to take it that seriously, as the normally intimidating Azteca was only around two-thirds full. I heard they were only pouring beer on Americans on the match instead of bags of piss, too. So at most, the win should be a momentum builder ahead of a the World Cup Qualifying campaign. Or at least an opportunity for a men’s national program pick itself up and dust itself off after several recent failures.

Lastly — and make no mistake about this — we’ve got a lot of catching up to do to Mexico at the moment. When it comes to the senior side it’s hard to ignore that they’re ranking of 18th, half that of our 36th… not that the FIFA rankings hold that much weight. Their recent international success at the youth levels, especially compared to our poor showings, indicates they’re ahead of us in the player development game too. An argument could even be made that this dominance extends to our respective club sides as well, with MLS clubs still finding it difficult to overcome Liga MX sides in the CONCACAF Champions League. I could go on.

maybe this is a little bit over the top, don’t you think?

Look, I get why some people want to celebrate the win. And I’m all for a bit of friendly banter aimed at our neighboring Hispanic fans. But blowing a friendly result up into some earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting outcome? Get out of here. I mean someone thought it was a such a momentous occasion that it was a good idea produce the banner up and to the left, like we had won a major trophy or something. It’s like we’re delusional and don’t know our place. Some normally reasonable minds were even claiming the Azteca win to be one of the top three USMNT results of all time. ALL TIME. Absurd.

Regardless, I’m still proud of the boys for a hisoric baby step forward. A win in Mexico; notch it off our belts. They performed bravely and showed signs of promise. A welcome change, and one that makes me less weary of the future. It’s a result that future let’s future American sides definitively know that they’re not up against an impossible task. They can think to themselves, “We’ve done this before, and we can do it again.” If we’re lucky, we’ll use that to our advantage the next time we’re in the Azteca… when it counts for something.

And should we win then, I promise you can celebrate all you want.

ten words or less #46

Posted on by
Reply

 

louis saha rushed in for tottenham medical

louis saha was rushed in for a late medical to complete his move from everton to spurs.

As the dust settles after another underwhelming transfer deadline day, I’m sure all of you readers are fed up with transfer news and gossip. I am, at least. In an effort to stray away from that topic of conversation, and to give your brain a break from digesting it all, I’ve put together this TWOL that contains absolutely zero transfer news. Except for the mocking picture above. So if you’ve come here look to catch up on yesterday’s “madness”, you might want to navigate elsewhere.

Barça’s kits next year: taking Blaugrana to literal the extreme. - football-shirts.co.uk

Milan disrespecting a man to whom they owe so much. – foxsports.com

The perfect artwork for me: one part nerd, one part Spurs. – onasixpence.bigcartel.com

FIFA’s looking into allowing four subs… only in injury time. – guardian.co.uk

I want to play Norwegian Bubble Football right now. – kckrs.com

Trolling Atlético fans, Spanish press, and knock-off kit manufacturers. - reddit.com/user/coolinwithcosta

Pushing your best player out the door, Philly? Bad idea. – delcotimes.com

Don’t click this unless you have a lot of time. – si.com
courtesy of an old high school frenemy, @Ryan7Hurley

Bravo to whomever “amended” Dan Borislow’s Wikipedia profile. – kickette.com

Someone needs to make Twellman and Wynalda watch this. – youtube.com

ten words or less #32

Posted on by
Reply
potential corinthians signing bing chang bao

i'm fairly certain bing chang bao's potential signing by corinthians is not what's kept the club from being able to buy tevez.

While it’s often times more fun to squabble and make a fuss about all of the (likely) false transfer rumors that abound this time of year in the soccer blogosphere, I find it interesting that this particular TWOL posting get’s half of it’s links from mainstream media outlets. They’re not usually known for diving into the transfer drivel, so you’ll get some interesting reads this time around.

And since it’s not very often that the likes of CNN, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports get to grace the hallowed spaces on my blog, I’m sure their editors are rushing to publicize their distinguished appearances on today’s quick update.

Ronaldo, Coentrão and Mourinho… you dirty dogs. – dirty tackle @ yahoo.com

How I feel during every USMNT “home” match.” – cnn.com

Ooooh… that burns, doesn’t it Messi? Doesn’t it!?!? - whoateallthepies.co.uk

Signing a rubbish player probably won’t catch the Chinese market. – ojogobonito.com

Nobody on the FIFA executive committee gets dirty money. – nytimes.com

The typical American soccer fan? I hope not. – reddit.com/user/devineman

Yet nobody wondered when decent-named players signed in Turkey. – si.com

A brilliant piece on the state of the women’s game. – foxsports.com

round up #34

Posted on by
1

I’m not sure how your corner of the globe has been lately, but I feel fairly certain that global warming is slowly converting the Ohio Valley region of North America into Southeast Malaysia. The humidity is hovering somewhere around 187%, temperatures are consistently in the mid-90′s, and the smog has been so thick the last few days I can eat it with a spoon.

What does this all mean for you readers? I rarely venture outside into this sauna-like weather, thus enabling me to unearth some interesting reads.

can apostolopoulos's ambitious plan for the silverdome land an MLS franchise in detroit?

Plans to renovate Silverdome for soccer on track – freep.com
While I was surprised to see that there was still a movement to get Detroit — a.k.a. Zombieville, USA — back on professional soccer’s radar, I wasn’t surprised in the slightest to read that the group behind the MLS bid is Greek. During the half decade of my youth that I spent living in the the Motor City, and even during subsequent trips back to the area in my adult life, I always felt like a minority amongst all of the curly-black haired, Mediterranean, Greek, Armenian and Assyrian-americans that call the city home.

The Apostolopoulos family’s ambitious plan to convert the Silverdome into a soccer specific stadium is revolutionary to say the least, and in my eyes, the only way MLS could possibly survive in the modern wasteland that is Detroit. By turning the Silverdome into a two-level stadium — an open-air, soccer-specific stadium on top and an enclosed inner stadium/convention center on the bottom — is a great way to get make enough revenue to sustain a team.

I can appreciate the positives from recycling the existing structure to make that happen (think green!), but I doubt that a soccer stadium on its own would have enough draw to justify the costs to convert the Pontiac location. Even better, it prevents an MLS bid based on putting a team in the vicinity of downtown Detroit from arising and ultimately failing.

And if we wan’t to keep the talk about revolutionary soccer ideas in the States rolling, maybe we could begin with a way to re-kick-start the youth development initiative in this country…

soccer data analytics

the future of the game will undoubtably be influenced by data and analytics.

A football revolution – ft.com
I know i’ve been harping about the growing importance of statistical analysis in soccer since the early days of the blog, and today that trend continues. This amazing piece by the Financial Times‘ Simon Kuper gives insight into the slow but inevitible adoption of the use of statistics by clubs in their management and transfer dealings. Data analysts on staff at clubs across europe are having an increasingly larger effect on the footballing decisions that are made both on and off the pitch. As the author endearingly calls them, the nerds are finally conquering the jocks in the world of sport.

What I want to know is,  wouldn’t an investment by American youth clubs in this sort of analysis make sense? Using analytics to identify and hone the techniques of the best of the best in the academy youth clubs around the country would be nothing but a benefit for all of the involved parties:

    • Professional clubs with academies could identify and nurture potential star players earlier.
    • Unaffiliated youth academies using these techniques would likely produce players recruited by top college programs, thus making them the most attractive option for players looking for a new club.
    • It could allow clubs to see who would be best to continue on from year to year and weed out players that hamper development on a wider scale.
    • Eventually, this could produce better players for national team selection.

Ignoring that those are all speculative positives, I think it could have huge positive . Unfortunately, this would require hefty investment for clubs, requiring the hiring of data analysts that don’t work for cheap. Perhaps a joint effort by MLS clubs, the USSF and the clubs themselves could be developed to help spread the costs?

Hey, speaking of countries that are providing the appropriate amount of focus on youth coaching and development…

Chicharito’s backheel winner/Giovanni dos Santos chip - youtube.com
As an avid U.S. Men’s National Team fan, it’s an unwritten rule that I should hate Mexico. I still hate Rafa <arquez because of the no-handshake incident from a friendly way back in 2007. I despise their fans for the unacceptable way they treat our boys when we visit the already inhospitable Azteca, so much so that I want to throw bags of piss at their players the next time they visit Columbus Crew Stadium. I openly root for their team to lose at every opportunity. But then things like this keep happening…

It pains me so much to admit it, but right now, I actually love watching El Tri play. Find me a more in-form striker than Chicharito, and I’ll give you the keys to my car. Couple his persistent class (and in this case, ballsy) finishing with his almost innocent joyful personality, and it’s almost impossible not to like the guy. The rest of the Mexican attack is creative and fluid, a joy to watch when compared to the drab play from the Americans at the Gold Cup. And they produced in adverse circumstances to boot. So while I’m not saying that i’m switching allegiances or anything, i just want to admit that i’m feeling guilty for liking this Mexico team. Please forgive me.

I have other guilty soccer pleasures. too. Aside from Chicharito and Giovanni dos Santos, new soccer kits are a crippling weak point of mine…

Football kits: Premier League teams turn style into a cash cow – guardian.co.uk
Long have I been an admirer of the design side of the soccer world, and as has often been detailed in this space, my love for jerseys/kits falls near the top of the subcategory of football design. This time of year is especially rewarding in that respect, as teams often reveal their kits for the upcoming season around the middle of the summer. My eyes are nearly constantly glued to jersey blogs like http://www.footballshirtculture.com, who update us on fresh kit templates, new manufacturers and updated sponsors on the kits from clubs across europe.

Tottenham 2011-2012 Puma Kits

is anyone really going to clash with tottenham's purple AND white kits?

But I rarely stop to think about the fact the club that i love only blesses me with a new kit to admire every year so that they can steal another $80 from me. I shelled out extra last year just to land the “Cup Sponsor” edition of Tottenham’s kit, just because I didn’t like their league sponsor. I’ll probably do the same for this year’s basic-white affair. Further analysis of this year’s kits for Spurs reveals a purple away and a black third kit. Do they really even need that third kit when nobody is going to clash with both purple and white? And to think that the Lillywhites have done that every season for six straight years!

All in all, this cycle of constant jersey replacement has started to put fans with holes in their pockets in a financial pickle. The article suggests that clubs might soon be limited to releasing a new kit once every two years, but I’m sure the ever-growing financial motivation of a new release money stream will keep clubs finding loopholes. Clubs looking to circumvent such rules only have to look at Arsenal: having used the same home kit two seasons in a row, they still managed to release a new away and third kits both seasons. Money trumps loyalty, no?

Another guilty pleasure of mine is art. Combine that with soccer and I’m damn near in heaven…

1982 Spain World Cup Posters – thebeautifulgear.com
So many great things happened in the world of football in 1982, the most important of which was my birth in the month of June. I’ve been told some other minor event was occurring that summer in Spain. To celebrate both my birth and a World Cup being hosted on the Iberian peninsula, a series of posters were commissioned.

Copa Mundial Espana 1982 poster by Joan Miro

the tournament poster just screamed spain. the same can be said about each host poster representing their individual cities.

In all seriousness though, I absolutely love the posters from Spain 1982. Not only did we have the fabulous tournament poster by surrealist Joan Miró (see to the right), but we also received bonus posters as each host city commissioned it’s own. What’s really makes them special though, is that each work of art is especially representative of the artistic style most prevalent in each city’s culture.

Abstract art’s spiritual home is Spain, and one of my favorites from the World Cup is worth highlighting. “Barcelona” by Antoni Tàpies is great not only because it perfectly embodies the Dua al Set movement that arose in Catalonia post WWII, but also because it was one of a group stylistic influences of modern grafiti artist (and personal favorite) Banksy.

ten words or less #31

Posted on by
Reply

It may just be me, but the summer tours by European clubs are nothing more than a gigantic tease.

cesc, luka and sam... trying to break the chains of "slavery."

All summer long, we’ve had to make do with watching international football (or not watching it, in the case of watching the Copa America in the U.S.) and patiently wait for the club season to resume. For many of us it’s been a torturous off season, watching our clubs walk a treatorous tightrope through the hectic transfer season. So the second we get a sniff of our teams playing again, we’re on it child predators to a newly opened playground.

It’s not until we see those sides give minutes to 23 players during the match, or only play their superstars for 25 contractual appearance minutes, that I begin to realize they’re just here to add to the clubs’ bottom lines.

If you don’t want to stay, don’t sign long contracts. – skysports.com

Why Mourinho-football is good for the game, perfectly explained. – soccerissue.com

To avoid frustration, Everton fans should not click this link. – evertontime.com

Promoted Club Tijuana has organized crime connections? No way!!! – inbedwithmaradona.com

It’s taking everyone forever to realize the brilliance of Sandro. – ojogobonito.com

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is girlier than a little girl. – kckrs.com

Can’t stop hyping this rivalry… and it’s MLS! – theoriginalwinger.com

A “+1″ for the Brighton & Hove stadium contractors. – dirty tackle @ yahoo.com

reactions to the world cup draw

Posted on by
2

seven months out, and we’re already reaching fever pitch. today is the day that the 32 qualifying nations find out their fates for next summer’s world cup finals in south africa.

the stars aligned in cape town to help align the groups for the 2010 world cup.

i almost feel like i’m on the right side of the pond today, with all of the coverage that the draw in cape town is drawing from the american press. i’ve seen prominent, front page stories from CNN, the LA times, usa today, sports illustrated and the new york times. twitter is predictably blowing up, with even non-soccer fans tweeting about the sport for a change. and that’s not even mentioning all of the on-air time that we’re getting from ESPN2 today: a full hour-long pre-draw special from ESPN’s soccer team (i could, however, do without the presence of john harkes. i won’t get into that now.), and 90 minutes of post draw analysis, not to mention they’re covering the entire draw live.

the always easy-on-the-eyes charlize theron hosted the draw, although she might regret the decision after being accosted by fifa general secretary jerome valcke’s kiss. and they also brought out a host of athletic stars to further boost the profile of the draw, least surprising being david beckham and the small animal on his head his awful hair. but we’re not here to talk about celebrities, are we?

many were surprised to see portugal and france miss out on being seeded for the draw, but i can’t really argue with that logic. both associations had horrid qualifying campaigns, although the same could be argued for argentina (i suspect that their flaky manager, legend diego maradona, had something to do with that). going in, the USMNT seemed primed for a group of death again, and france definitely deserved to get a hard draw for their dubious qualification. but of course, that’s not how things all ways work out.

group a – south africa, mexico, uruguay, france
well, it’s fair to say that our hated rivals to the south had a somewhat friendly draw. mexico gets put in with the softest seeded side in south africa (tangent warning — why is fifa so dead set on giving the host country such a free pass? they’re the only side in the field that didn’t have to go through any qualifying, and then we give them a further break making sure they’re not pitted against one of the top sides in the world. i think that’s a load of bullsh*t.). however, they will also face a stern uruguay side that scored bucket loads during qualification. and of course the remaining side in the group is france, who were spared the sword they so deserved during this draw.

this group should really only be contested between les bleus and el trí. luckily for the mexicans, france will probably keep their pathetic excuse for a coach, raymond domenech. he couldn’t coach ice to melt, let alone coach an extremely deep side to advance. so i fully expect the french to once again struggle to make it to the next round. and sadly, i don’t think that the home side have enough talent to take advantage of the coaching shortcomings.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: steven pienaar (south africa/everton), adrés guardado (mexico/deportivol la corunña), diego forlán (urugay/atlético madrid), yoann gourcuff (france/bordeaux)
PREDICTIONS: mexico takes the group, while the french barely nip south africa for second.

group b – argentina, nigeria, south korea, greece
though many may give this group a “group of death” ranking, i don’t quite think that’s appropriate. that said, every side in this group is a pretty solid side and making it one of the hardest to predict.

with the talent that argentina have in their ranks, they should walk through this group. unfortunately, this national team is in crisis as they have an idiot at the helm. brilliant as maradona was as a player, he is a terrible manager and has done a very poor job inspiring a side with the best player in the world (messi) at their disposal. nigeria, though shaky in qualifying, have been one of the more dominant teams in africa for the last 16 years. i expect a good showing from south korea, as they look to build on their their seventh straight finals appearance. they will hope to channel their semi-final run of 2002, but . lastly are greece, champions of europe in 2004, who managed to scrape into the finals by beating a scrappy ukraine side in the european play-offs.

maybe having a legend like maradona leading your talented side isn't such a great idea.

though one would think that argentina will rule this group, it wouldn’t be wild to see any one of these teams advance. i do think the weakest team, on paper at least, is greece. but the game isn’t played on paper, is it?

PLAYERS TO WATCH: lionel messi (argentina/barcelona), taye taiwo (nigeria/marseille), park ji-sung (south korea/manchester united), sokratis papastathopoulos (greece/genoa)
PREDICTIONS: south korea shock to win the group, with argentina making it through by the skin of their teeth and at least one fake maradona seizure on the field after a narrow victory.

group c – england, united states, algeria, slovenia
i went into this draw fully expecting the USMNT to get screwed over again. i knew it was going to happen. everyone i spoke to knew it would happen. and then it didn’t, and i don’t even know how to react. relief? ecstatic? horror?!?! despite the favorable draw, i’m still very worried about the yanks. we have a nasty habit of playing to the level of our competition most of the time (remember the loss to iran in the 1998 world cup?), and and then there’s the bob bradley factor (read my previous piece on bob here). he’s not what i would call a tactical genius.

for that reason, i wouldn’t be surprised for them to get a positive result against england; i mean history is on our side. but for the very same reason, algeria and slovenia scare the crap out of me. i don’t really expect for the boys to get more than a single point from those games combined (so a loss and a tie). i hope for more, but i’m not holding my breath. the other thing we have to be concerned about is our growing list of injured stars, and whether not those players (onyewu and davies in particular) can make miraculous recoveries in time to make the plane.

england should also pretty happy with their draw. and while they’re sure to trip up against one of the sides (fingers crossed for the game against us!), fabio capello’s side should have no problem winning the group. if they can stay healthy, they will remain one of the tournament favorites. capello is arguably one of the best managers in the game, and i think he has righted the ship that mcclaren was trying to sink.

as for the other two sides, i really don’t know a damn thing about either. both algeria and slovenia are minnows in the world game. but they can’t be slouches either, as they qualified over traditional sides (egypt and russia respectively) that many expected to qualify.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: wayne rooney (england/manchester united), landon donovan (united states/l.a. galaxy), karim ziani (algeria/wolfsburg), rene krhin (slovenia/inter milan)
PREDICTIONS: england take the cake, while i’m pulling for the americans to take second.

beckham vs. donovan: the galaxy teammates will face each other in the first round

group d – germany, australia, serbia, ghana
this is another really tough group to call, as each side has a lot of talent and a lot to prove. the germans are the obvious favorites, despite not having a truly sensational player on their side. that said, i think they’re a very organized squad that play team football. you also can’t discount their extra motivation following the tragic suicide of number one goalkeeper robert enke.

austrilia’s golden generation will be looking to make one more big splash on the world scene before their time has passed. serbia are a team on the rise; they could easily upset the germans on the right day. and lastly are ghana, who are my dark horse in this tournament. i fell in love with them during the 2006 finals, and i think they could make a deep run on their home continent. led by do-it-all midfield michael essien, they’ve got a surprisingly deep squad peppered with euro-based talent.

while i think germany will win the group, the other spot is seriously up for grabs. can the socceroos reproduce their asian domination from qualifying? can serbia shake their underdog tag? and can ghana be the tormentors that they were in the germany four years ago. i’m having a hard time choosing!

PLAYERS TO WATCH: mario gómez (germany/bayern munich), tim cahill (australia/everton), danko lazović (serbia/psv), michael essien (ghana/chelsea)
PREDICTIONS: die mannschaft will steam roll the group, maybe with a hiccup along the way. the second spot is a bit of toss up, but i’m pulling for ghana to advance for the second straight finals.

group e - netherlands, denmark, japan, cameroon
i think this group will pretty much be straight up what you would expect from it. and while there could be some surprising results along the way, it would shock me if holland and denmark didn’t advance. of course i know i’ve just jinxed them both, but whatever. on paper both sides are far superior to the perennial asian and african finalists. i’m not saying that japan and cameroon suck by any means, i just don’t think either side is dangerous enough to overcome their european conunterparts.

the dutch and danes each rolled in their qualification campaigns, hence my belief that they will dominate this group. but don’t be surprised if the indomitable lions pull of a miracle on their home continent, especially if eto’o get’s hot.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: wesley sneijder (holland/inter milan), niklas bendtner (denmark/arsenal), shinji okazaki (japan/shimizu s-pulse), samuel eto’o (cameroon/inter milan)
PREDICTIONS: the flying dutchman will get a point from their clash with the danes, but win the group by squashing the other two sides. denmark will clean up, but not to the extent of the dutch, taking second place.

group f – italy, paraguay, new zealand, slovakia
boy did the defending champions land a sweet draw. as of right now, it looks like the italian’s path to the round of 16 is almost guaranteed. their biggest resistance will probably coming from the paraguayans or slovakians. keep in mind that the italians are an aging team (a prime example being former world player of the year fabio cannavarro, who is a shell of the player we saw inspire the italians to world cup glory in 2006), and their qualifying campaign was far than stellar. so maybe there is hope out there for the other sides to catch the azzurri on a day where their old legs aren’t quite up to the task.

paraguay and slovakia will definitely be threats to the italians, though. paraguay will view their CONMEBOL campaign as a huge success, including several high profile results, the biggest of witch were a 1-0 win over argentina and a 2-0 win over brazil. slovakia were shock group winners in eufa qualification, having dispatched traditional powers such as the czech republic and poland. and then there is new zealand, making only their second finals appearance ever. unsurprisingly, i’m not expecting much out of the kiwis.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: giuseppe rossi (italy/villareal), nelson haedo valdez (paraguay/borussia dortmund), shane smeltz (new zealand/gold coast united), stanislav šesták (slovakia/bochum)
PREDICTIONS: italy will move on to try  to defend their crown in first, with paraguay stealing a surprise move into the second round.

group g – brazil, north korea, ivory coast, portugal

luis fabiano lit up south africa during the confederations cup. will he repeat the task in 2010?

ladies and gentleman, this is your group of death. sure, there is a completely underwhelming team in the group in north korea (though i’m half holding out hope that their supreme leader kim jung-il will fire their manager and try to guide the team himself). but the rest of the teams are all being considered by some members of the press as potential teams to hoist the world cup trophy on july 11th.

what can i say about brazil that hasn’t already been said? talent wise, they’re loaded. they have some of the best players in the world playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world. and though coach dunga has them playing atypical brazilian football (this is called defense in the rest of the world), his results are hard to ignore.

les éléphants, lead by chelsea giant striker didier drogba, are considered by many to be one of the best african teams of all time. they have loads of players playing in european first division sides. honestly, i wouldn’t be shocked at all to see them make a run at the semifinals.

and then there is the enigma that is portugal. they have the other best player in the world, but poor cristiano ronaldo tends to disappear in big games (hey ronnie, just a reminder: every game in the world cup is big game). so if they can coax their star man to finally prove his big price tag, keep their deep side healthy, and put their dismal qualification run behind them, then we can expect big things out of this side. but that’s a big if.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: luís fabiano (brazil/sevilla), hong yong-jo (north korea/fc rostov), didier drogba (ivory coast/chelsea), cristiano ronaldo (portugal/real madrid)
PREDICTIONS: a tricky group will produce a predictable winner in brazil. as for the second spot, i’m going to have to go with the elephants of the ivory coast edging out the fancied portuguese. this will no doubt be followed by a large ronaldo temper tantrum.

group h – spain, switzerland, honduras, chile
despite the spaniards being knocked out of the confederations cup this past august by the USMNT, i still think they’re the best team in the world. their qualification record was spotless, going undefeated while scoring 28 goals and only conceding 5. they have the deepest midfield in the world, so much so that great midfielders such as everton’s mikel arteta can’t even hope to get a cap. and if torres and david villa can stay healthy, they have the most potent attacking duo in the world. though la roja might struggle to keep their amazing run of form going, they could easily replicate their success at euro 2008.

and boy did spain get a cake draw to help them repeat their success. switzerland won their uefa qualifying group, but it was very weak (greece, latvia, israel, luxembourg and moldova). honduras did so so in CONCACAF qualifying, but almost all of their wins were at home. and though chile were shock runners up in CONMEBOL qualifying, i can’t really expect them to be strong enough to knock down the spaniards.

PLAYERS TO WATCH: andés iniesta (spain/barcelona), alexander frei (switzerland/basel), david suazo (honduras/inter milan), mark gonzález (chile/CSKA moscow)
PREDICTIONS: spain sweep the competition aside to win the group. the other three teams will battle it out, but i think the swiss will end up at the top of the heap.

—————————————

so here we are. you’ve got my initial predictions for what’s going to go on in our newly formed groups. now we have the next seven months to argue back and forth about who will or won’t  meet my expectations. but remember, these are just predictions.

i for one find this next wait to be the worst seven months ever; the anticipation for the summer’s events is just too much to handle. thank god we’ve got all of the action in europe to keep my attention tied up. otherwise, i might just go insane.