Location: Argentina is located in the Southern part of South America and is known as a country that is extremely passionate about soccer.

Prior Appearances: Argentina has played in 14 World Cups

Best Performance: Argentina won the World Cup twice, in Argentina 1978 and Mexico 1986.

Argentina is a country that has many excellent soccer players, but in the qualifier to the 2010 World Cup was very close to not qualifying to the World Cup, finishing in 4th place in the South American qualifier with 28 points, just 5 points more than the 6th place, that doesn’t get a spot in the World Cup.
Leo Messi is Argentina’s super star. A player with an amazing speed, long distance shot and a dribble that has left many people laying flat on the ground. When a player is good, teams double team on that player. To stop Leo Messi, it takes 3 or 4 players.

The other person to follow in Argentina is their coach, Diego Maradona. The reason I pick him, is that Messi is a super star playing in his club team (Barcelona), but for some reason when Messi plays with Argentina he dissapoints all his fans. For Argentina to win the World Cup, Maradona has to make Messi feel as if he’s playing with Barcelona and surround him with the players that he needs to shine. Messi shines when he plays as an attacking midfielder with one forward in front of him and two fast wingers to pull the defense to the wings and give Messi the freedom to do his magic.

Danilo’s Prediction: Semi-Finals

Nigeria

Location: Nigeria is located on the West coast of Central Africa, it is also the most populous country in Africa.

Prior Appearances: Nigeria has played in 3 World Cups.

Best Performance: Nigeria has reached the round of 16 twice in 1994 and 1998.

Nigeria is known for producing many excellent young players, has a good national team that just needs a little more to be a real contender for the World Cup.

In Africa, 5 groups of 4 teams are formed and the winner of each group goes to the World Cup. Nigeria won it’s group with 12 points, closely followed by Tunisia with 11 points.

Obafemi Martins is getting back to his old self and is shining once again in his team in Germany where he won the German tournament last year.
Uche has been playing many years in Spain, one of the best leagues in the World and is known for his speed and scoring skills.

Danilo’s Prediction: Round of 16

Greece

Location: Greece is located in the South-East part of Europe.

Prior Appearances: Greece has played in 1 World Cup in 1994

Best Performance: Greece lost all their games in 94, didn’t score a goal and received 10 goals in 3 games. But don’t be misled by their 1994 participation, because Greece won the 2004 European tournament of nations, known as the second most important nations tournament after the World Cup.

Greece is one of the few teams that got to the World Cup without having to play any power house.
The toughest team that Greece had to play was Switzerland, Greece ended up in 2nd place in their group, so had to
play 2 games against Ukraine (2nd place in another group) for a spot in the World Cup.

Greece was also lucky by playing Ukraine, instead of other teams such as France, Portugal, etc.
In both games against Ukraine, only 1 gol was scored, the one that gave Greece a spot in the World Cup.
Karagounis is the leader of the greek team. He’s a all-terrain midfielder, plays defense and creates opportunities for the forwards. Kyrgiakos is the only Greek player that plays in a big European team, he’s very good in the air and defending.

Danilo’s Prediction: First Round

South Korea

Location: South Korea is located on the korean peninsula between China and Japan.

Prior Appearances: South Korea has played in 7 World Cups and was the co-host of the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.

Best Performance: In 2002, they got their best finish in a World Cup by getting to the World Cup semifinal. But that great accomplishment has a sore note, because South Korea received the fastest goal in World Cup history in the 3rd place game by Turkish player Hakan Sukur in only 11 seconds.

In the 2002 World Cup there was a lot of controversy and many accusations that referees helped South Korea during the tournament, so South Korea is a very hated team in the soccer World.

South Korea had to play in a tough group to get to the World Cup, playing North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and United Arab Emirates. South Korea won the group and earned a spot in the World Cup.

Park Ji-Sung is South Korea’s star, he plays for Manchester United in England, one of the best teams in the World, a player known for his speed and strength.

Park Chu-Yong is a young player that is shining in his team in France.

Danilo’s Prediction: First Round

But why?

For billions of people around the world, the World Cup is like the Olympics – only bigger.

Like the Olympics, athletes are sent to represent their country.  They carry the hopes of the entire nation, only there is no other sport – no bobsled or relay race – to salvage pride lost in defeat. There is just one sport, the world’s sport, that can give bragging rights to countries and send enemies into the streets under the same flag, wearing the same pride.

The World Cup is full of passion.  The simple love for the sport is combined with national pride (and occasional hate), leaving a densely layered pitch of emotions on a stage larger than any other.

Countries that have spent significant parts of their history at war find themselves matched on that pitch, a rivalry that was measured in blood a generation ago now measured in goals.  The intensity of such clashes is often indescribable. Brazil and Argentina, having won one-third of all World Cups, clash in a war of cultures, ancestry, and athleticism. England and Argentina are still not too far removed from the Falkland War of 1982. England and Germany are among many players from the theater of World War II who meet on the pitch with a extra bit of unspoken nationalism at stake. 

The World soccer federation (FIFA) decided to organize the first World Cup tournament in 1930 in Uruguay to commemorate its 100th year of independence. The World Cup has since been played 17 times in 80 years and only 7 countries have won the Cup.

And it is only after a grueling stage of continental tournaments that a team can become eligible to even compete in the World Cup.  By the time the field has been narrowed to the final 32 who take the pitch in the host country ever four years, literally thousands of matches have been played to whittle the field.

Then, and only then, does the nation have a right to fight through a group stage where a top 2 (of 4) finish is required to move on to a single elimination (or knock-out) stage of the tournament, where a team must win 4 matches in a row to become World Champions.

And, once every four years, a team does exactly that.  They endure the trials and tribulations and march into history as World Champions.  Their flag is hoisted all across their home country as their greatest hopes have been realized – they have been unified in glory, World Cup Champions.

Contributed by Daniel Rodriguez & Kyle Burkholder

Alamo Drafthouse: USA vs England World Cup Watch Party - Co-hosted by the Crocketteers

Join us on June 12, 2010 (1:00 PM) at Park North Alamo Drafthouse to watch the USA vs England World Cup Match in glorious High-Definition on the big screen. Stadium seating plus food, beer, wine. Admission is free with ticket. We will be selling Travis 250 memberships, scarves, signing up basic members, and cheering for our country. Travis 250 members receive free popcorn.

NEW YORK (August 20, 2009) – The USA Bid Committee today announced the 27 United States cities that passed the third stage of the city and stadium proposal review process and remain under consideration as potential host venues for the FIFA World Cup™ in 2018 or 2022. These cities will continue working with the USA Bid Committee both on the development and promotion of their local and national campaigns.

The 27 remaining candidate cities offer a wide variety of markets that range in size from New York City to Jacksonville, Fla., as well as vast coast-to-coast geographic strength. Numerous U.S. markets that did not play host to matches during FIFA World Cup in 1994 remain under consideration, including Philadelphia, Cleveland, St. Louis, Denver, Seattle and Phoenix.

The 11 cities removed during this round were: Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Fayetteville, Ark.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Minneapolis, Minn.; New Orleans, La.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Salt Lake City, Utah and San Antonio, Tex.

List of 27 cities still in contention

Usually, I’d talk about how challenging it is to win a World Cup (Only 7 countries have won it in 90 years) or how many wars have been temporarily stopped thanks to soccer or talk about all the friendly matches played to promote peace such as the game between FC Barcelona vs Peace Team (Team made up of players from Israel and Palestine) or amazing moments like the one in WC2006 where Mexico’s goalie father had just passed away and before the Mexico-Iran game Iran’s goalie gave Mexico’s goalie a flower bucket and a hug (Min. 2:55)

Instead, I’m just gonna explain soccer as if I was writing a “Soccer for dummies” book.

Soccer is very similar to basketball, the main differences (beside the obvious) is that in basketball you can dribble past more than 2 people (Easier to do with your hands than your feet) and there’s no goalie in front of rim ready to stop the ball. That’s why the best ways to play soccer are (1) Run extremely fast to leave people behind or (2) Play like the Globetrotters and make the defense chase behind the ball.

Soccer is a team sport just like basketball, if you are fast or tall (heading the ball) gives you an advantage. There’s a lot of physical contact (like most sports played by men) and the rules are set-up to encourage a physical-fun game without having people getting killed. (That’s why in B-ball you can’t push somebody when he’s in the air).

In soccer you have 11 players, the field is very big so they try to play positions.

The goalie is the only player that can grab the ball with his hands, he’s the main reason why it’s so difficult to score a goal. But he can only grab the ball inside the goalie box.

In front of the goalie is the line of defenders (Usually 3-4 players) their main goal is to kick the ball out of … what you call in football “The red zone”.

In the middle of the field are the midfielders, they are the quarterbacks of soccer, their job is to break the “destruction defensive line” created by the other team’s defense by passing the ball around and hopefully give a nice pass to a wide open forward to score a goal.

The wide-receivers of soccer are the forwards, their job is very similar to a wide-receiver because of the off-side rule (A forward can’t just stand behind the rivals defense waiting for a pass, he has to be “on this side” until the ball is passed) because of this rule, many plays look just like a QB passing the ball to the WR who sprinted passed the cornerback or safety… BUT the forward still had to put the ball in the goal and has the goalie ready to stop the ball.

Sometimes a player will get fouled about 20-30 yards from the goal and the team gets a free-kick. That’s when you realize that there’s a similarity between soccer and golf. When a player gets a free kick, he has to kick the ball over 4-7 rivals standing about 12ft in front of him, get the ball pass the goalie and put it in the goal. Some free-kicks can be just as exciting as watching a golfer getting a hole-in-one.

The best free kicker in the World is Juninho Pernambucano, a Brazilian that plays in the French league.

Everybody loves the And1 basketball videos because of all the tricks and skills they display. In soccer there’s also many people that can do a lot of tricks with a soccer ball in a game. The best dribbler in World right now is Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese – Plays in England in Manchester United)

Hopefully this will help you understand a little better why soccer is the most popular sport in the World.

To finish, I’ll leave you with one of the funniest soccer commercials I’ve seen.

They milled around on a concourse at Birkelbach Stadium, posing for pictures, others accepting an embrace or encouraging word from family and friends.

A few moments had passed since the Reagan girls soccer team began the slow trudge to its bus. The heartbreak of Friday’s 1-0 overtime loss to Coppell in the Class 5A state semifinals was sinking in.

“This is the best season in our lives,” Reagan senior defender Aubrey Bagley said. “We had so much fun. It was perfect.

“Winning the state championship would be better, but this is still amazing.”

Yet the historical moments — the No. 1 national ranking, a school record-tying 25 wins and 21 shutouts — were lost in the tears and stunned faces.

“It’s going to be the toughest thing ever,” said Reagan senior goalkeeper Claire Robinson, who had six saves.

“I am so proud of our team, and I’m so upset. We should be in that final (today). We deserved it, and more than anything, coach (Frankie) Whitlock deserves that state title. I just can’t believe it’s over.”

Read the entire article at MySA.
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