Today, the folks at FIFA held the draw for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and for once the United States caught a break. As you know, soccer/football is the biggest of all sports in the world and the World Cup is its biggest event.
Followers of the "beautiful game" in the US have increased the last several years due to the success of the 2002 World Cup, in which the US made it to the elimination stage, and the success of last year's Confederations Cup in South Africa when they made the finals (their first ever of a major FIFA event) after snapping Spain's record-unbeaten streak. Then, you have the people like me who grew up playing the game and feel it is important as a well-rounded sports fan to follow the game at the highest level internationally.
OK, enough of the intro material...what a lucky draw! Many expected the US not only to get one of the guaranteed "seeded teams," but also one of the major European teams that weren't seeded. Instead they got England, Algeria and Slovenia. Wow.
A breakdown:
England (FIFA ranking 9th): The seeded team in the region and the fathers of soccer are the Group C favorites, but are one of the beatable seeds for the US. This is no Brazil, Netherlands or Spain. Plus, it sets up seven months of lead-up talk between two closely-related countries. The 1-0 US win in the 1950 World Cup, the last time these teams met in a World Cup, is considered one of sports biggest upsets. In addition, you have the David Beckham-Landon Donovan rivalry and the fact that people in England think soccer is their birthright and that they should win any World Cup they qualify for...despite not winning the title since 1966.
Algeria (28th): Algeria makes its first World Cup appearance since 1986 and was the third-lowest ranked of the eight teams in Pot 3, which was the African/South American teams. To qualify, they needed a huge playoff upset of Egypt. The US got a break from powers Cameroon (11th), Ivory Coast (16th) and Chile (17th).
Slovenia (33rd): In Pot 4 of European teams, the US feared it would get powers Portugal (5th), France (7th), Greece (12th) or Switzerland (18th). Instead, they got the second-lowest ranked team of the Pot. Now, Slovenia did upset power Russia to make the World Cup, but they are not the other teams listed in the possible draw.
All-in-all, the US (14th) should aim for a tie vs. England, but a win is possible. Any sort of point(s) in that game will set them up nicely for the other two games. They should advance to the knockout round where anything can happen. Stay tuned...June should be fun!
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