England will be tough. Maybe we will pull off another 1950 Cup shocker and beat the Limeys. Slovenia and Algeria barely squeaked into the World Cup. We couldn't ask for a better draw. We avoided a "group of death" and will have little excuse to make it to the second round.
For the uninitiated, there are 32 teams in the World Cup which will be played this summer in South Africa. The 32 teams earned their spots in a rigorous qualifying process in each of the regional federations. The 32 teams were then placed into pots that were determined by FIFA rankings and geography. Then those teams were randomly drawn via lottery balls and placed into eight four team brackets.
The four teams then play each other one time in their respective bracket. If you win you get three points. If you draw you get one point. If you lose you receive zero points. The two teams with the most points after all have played each other then advance to the round of sixteen. Goal differential breaks ties.
From that point on the sixteen teams play in knock out stages similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. The field narrows to the quarterfinals (final eight), then the semifinals (final four) then into the championship match.
The farthest the United States has ever advanced is into the quarterfinals in 2002. We shocked Luis Figo (which he deserved for ditching FC Barcelona for Real Madrid) and Portugal in the group stage. We also humiliated our arch-rival Mexico in the Round of Sixteen. We lost to the eventual runner-up in the quarterfinals, Germany, 0-1. We played an amazing match...but German keeper Oliver Kahn (the man with dinner plates for hands) kept our best shots out of the net. Germany would end up losing to a reborn Ronaldo (who sported an awful mohawk while breaking the all-time World Cup Tournament goal record) and Brazil who were trying to make amends for a disastrous 1998 Final loss to France.
In '06 we got shafted by a faux penalty call on Claudio Reyna against Ghana. We didn't make it out of the group stage.
We got a great shot this year. We won last year's World Cup tune up tourney, The Confederation's Cup played in South Africa. We came in second in the Gold Cup a month later losing to Brazil in the final despite leading the entire game until a second half surge by the Brazilians.
People in the U.S. are beginning to take notice. America leads the world in purchasing tickets for the World Cup. Over 70,000 tickets have already been purchased by the Yanks...compared to 25,000 in soccer mad England.
I didn't catch the '06 final live. I had taped it while we were up in Indiana visiting family. I avoided the internet and most news sources. Still...I accidently caught a glimpse of a newspaper headline on the road in Sikeston, Missouri that gave away Italy's shocking victory over the French. I was surprised that the story was on the front page of a local paper and didn't expect to see the ending given away. I watched the game once I got home and still can't believe Zidane headbutted that guy. Of course the French got lucky this year only getting into the World Cup with a blatant hand-ball against Ireland.
It's only December...but things are already gearing up for a great soccer summer!
