World Cup South Africa, here I come

May 22, 2010, 5:07 PM UTC

2010

Let me say this straight away … I am NOT trying to make anyone jealous.

That said, prepare to be jealous.

I’m quite busy these days – busier than a one-legged man in a roach-stomp competition, I like to say. I’m working my usual MLSSoccer.com pieces, checking in with SI.com pieces (like this one from yesterday looking at Tuesday’s friendly), doing some coaching on the side … and then this:

Performing all the front-end prep work for the trip to South Africa. First, there’s the obvious, research on teams. The thing is, everyone has their favorite side. The uber-passionate among them know ALL there is to know about their beloved side, whichever one that happens to be. So they expect you to know, too. ““Why do you think van Marwijk cut Wout Brama from the squad? That guy’s good!” I got that one, more or less, just this morning.

See, I’m supposed to know that. I guess. If not now, then by the time I step off that 16-hour flight.

Perhaps not for every single team, but for a lot of them. I do have to be somewhat selective, mostly depending on how much influence each team will have in the tournament. Let’s just say I’m not spending much time on New Zealand and North Korea, and maybe a couple of others. But that leaves plenty of teams I DO need to know inside and out. So, yeah, many miles to go before I sleep on the ongoing team research.

(Click through for more, including my travel itinerary in South Africa... )

Around here, a lot of my friends of Mexican heritage want to know about El Tri. And right now, the establishment grab for cash with all these friendlies is making it tough to keep up. When someone says to me, “Hey, did you watchMexico in that friendly?” … well, they had better damn well say which one. Even then, I’m going to have to stop and think about it for a second.

Plus, it’s not all about team research. There’s prep work for the travel in general. I’ve been lucky enough to cover three World Cups on site, and I can say this for sure: if you can be smart and professional about logistics, your work will be better for it. Otherwise, you spend so much time and energy moving between venues, training sites, hotels, press conference sites, etc., that you limit the time and energy for reportin’ and writin’ chores.

I’ll keep everyone informed along the way. So if you’re not lucky enough to be on the Delta-through-Atlanta-direct-into-Jo’burg, or your own preferred route to the continent, then you can live the life of a World Cup-credentialed journalist vicariously through me during the next month and change.

The initial sketch of my itinerary looks like this: (matches listed are the ones for which I am officially credentialed.)

June 7 – arrival into Jo-burg 530 pm, travel to Pretoria, hotel check-in

June 8 – USA training

June 9 – USA training

June 10 – USA training

June 11 – South Africa-Mexico, Jo-Burg

June 12 – USA-England, Rustenburg

June 13 – USA training

June 14 – Netherlands-Denmark in Jo-burg (OR) USA training

June 15 – Brazil-N. Korea in Jo-burg (OR) USA training

June 16 – Spain-Switzerland in Durban (OR) USA training

June 17 – USA training