The Beautiful Game

It's finally here! World Cup 2010 South Africa. If you've never been to a World Cup before, let me tell you, there is nothing in sports that rivals it. The atmosphere is intoxicating (not to mention the beer), and the passion of the whole thing just overwhelms you.

Above are photos from my trip to the 2006 Cup in Germany. What a blast! Those are fans from Ghana and Brazil. I'll tell you one quick story from my experience that pretty much sums it up.

My friend and I went to the famous Hofbrauhaus beer garden in Munich. We sat down where some Australian fans were drinking. I mentioned that I had been to the Australia-Brazil match earlier in the day, thinking we could bond over that. But upon hearing this, one of the guys pounded his fist on the table, screamed something and stomped off. I was like, what did I say??

His friends explained that they had flown all the way from Australia without game tickets and that it was very upsetting that an American got to go to that game. I insisted that I no prior knowledge of their travel plans or their ticket status, seeing as how I just met them four minutes earlier. The guy returned and we all got along, but he shot me daggers all night. Since I had tickets to several games, had I known, I might've sold my tickets. They were going for $1,000 a piece!

Such is the passion.

Anyway, World Cup 2010 gets started tomorrow with the first match between the host country and Mexico. I'm pulling for South Africa to rise up and defeat our neighbors. The US-Mexico rivalry is kind of like Carolina vs Duke, and lord knows, as a Carolina alum, I can't pull for Duke. Same thing.

In the World Cup format, there are 8 groups of 4 teams. Each team in the group plays the others once. The top two teams from each group advance to the single-elimination round of 16. So, here are my picks:

Group A (South Africa, Mexico, France, Uruguay): I'll take South Africa and Mexico. Yeah, South Africa is a bold pick, but home field advantage! France is overrated and barely snuck into the Cup on an illegal HANDBALL goal against Ireland.

Group B (Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece): Argentina and Nigeria.

Group C (US, England, Algeria, Slovenia): USA! USA! And England. They play each other on Saturday, by the way. Don't miss that game.

Group D (Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia): Germany's a lock. The 2nd place is probably between Australia and Ghana. Since Ghana beat the US in the last Cup, and I now have an intimate relationship with the Aussies, I'll go with Australia.

Group E (Denmark, Japan, Holland, Cameroon): Tough group. I'll go with Netherlands and Cameroon.

Group F (Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia, New Zealand): Italy and Paraguay should get through, but I'll take New Zealand over Paraguay. We just honeymooned in New Zealand. Amazing place!

Group G (Brazil, Ivory Coast, North Korea, Portugal): It's incredible that both North and South Korea are in the same Cup. Not a likely outcome, but they're both overmatched. I'll take Brazil and Ivory Coast.

Group H (Switzerland, Honduras, Spain, Chile): Spain will win the group. I'll take Chile in 2nd.

I'll do more posts as the World Cup rolls on. Who do you like??

By the way, my travel companion at the last World Cup, public radio reporter Curt Nickisch, is also writing about the Cup. Good stuff.