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Five Important Questions To Answer Before The World Cup Engulfs Us All

Jun 10, 2010, 9:00 PM UTC

â†µYou may have heard the news that the World Cup is getting ready to begin. Yeah, I know, totally out of nowhere. The tournament starts Friday morning with South Africa facing off against Mexico. But before the matches begin, we have five important questions that need answering. Rather than doing this ourselves, we’ve asked for help from those around the Internet. First, you’re obviously familiar with the work of Mr. Brian Cook. Next, as he habitually challenges everything I write on soccer (which is incredibly appreciated by yours truly), I asked Jack Kogod – aka Unsilent Majority – to share his two cents. From a soccer bloggy standpoint, we have Matthew Tomas of The Shin Guardian, Jack Pierce (2Yellows) of Avoiding the Drop, who is British so we must hate him on principle, and Jon Tannenwald of The Goalkeeper.â†µ

â†µâ†µNow that we’re all acquainted, on with the questions!â†µ

â†µâ†µLet’s get the most important (and jingoistic) question out of the way first, How far will the U.S. team go?â†µ

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â†µâ†µCook: They’ll get to the knockout rounds but go out immediately. Being in a group paired with Germany, Serbia, and Ghana is pretty brutal. Too much uncertainty on defense to believe they’ll get past the winner of that group, presuming they don’t pull off the upset against England.â†µ

â†µâ†µKogod: I have the U.S. finishing second in the group before bowing out in the second round to Serbia.â†µ

â†µâ†µShin Guardian: The U.S. will likely see its tournament end right after getting out of the group stage. That being said, the draw sets up favorably and with a good run, you might see a second showdown with Spain in the semifinals.â†µ

â†µâ†µ2Yellows: I think the U.S. will advance from Group C, finishing second with six points, losing to England and defeating Slovenia and Algeria. They will then be knocked out in the Round of 16 by Serbia, who will be the shock winners of Group D. Bob Bradley will be ridiculously exposed as a rubbish manager who cannot make proper substitutions, but Clint Dempsey will show himself on the world stage to be a truly class player. Levy wants me to say I hate America, so you all can have an enemy. Fine. America sucks, England rules and you are going to get SMOKED on Saturday. Now, flame on.â†µ

â†µâ†µGoalkeeper: The U.S. will get to the round of 16 and out to Germany, though if it’s them and not Serbia it will be close. â†µ

â†µâ†µDL: Call me nuts, but the way the bracket sets up, I see a possibility that the U.S. can make a run to the semis before losing to the winner of Brazil vs. the Netherlands. I also have the USMNT beating England, so I’m an optimist.â†µ

â†µâ†µOther than the U.S., who is the easiest team to root for? Who is the hardest team to root for?â†µ

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â†µâ†µCook: Outside of the pure minnows that you root for because they’re the Holy Cross of soccer, probably some of the African sides that have a chance. They play attractive attacking soccer and are somewhat disorganized at the back, leading to entertaining games. I would have said Holland but I’m still bitter that Nigel De Jong broke Stuart Holden.â†µ

â†µâ†µKogod: Easiest: Argentina. They have the world’s most dynamic group of forwards, and a delightfully insane Maradona on the touch-line. The toughest has to be Italy. They’re pure evil. Even more so than our tri-colored rivals to the south.â†µ

â†µâ†µShin Guardian: No question that the easiest team to root for is the Bafana Bafana home side from South Africa. They’ll have the fans and having a World Cup on their soil as the first one in Africa is, well, huge.â†µ

â†µâ†µ2Yellows: The easiest team to root for is Spain, because they play ridiculously great football and have amazing talents. The hardest team to root for is Germany because it’s all so mechanical, rote and so centralized. â†µ

â†µâ†µGoalkeeper: The easiest to root for is Spain because of how they play. France is the toughest because of the handball goal that qualified them. I’m a Jewish France fan - the amount of guilt in that is off the chart.  â†µ

â†µâ†µDL: I’ll set up a six-way tie and say all the African nations. South Africa has no chance to get out of their group, so rooting for all the African teams hedges your bets for local celebrations. Well, except Algeria (in the U.S. group) who we absolutely cannot root for in at least one match. Least? That’s easy…France. They aren’t even supposed to be there and the whole bracket seems set up for them to walk into the knockout round.â†µ

â†µâ†µWho is the best player in the tournament and (if different) who is the most important player to his team?â†µ

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â†µâ†µCook: The best is Messi, but that’s a boring answer. If there’s a guy who can make an argument otherwise it’s Brazil’s marauding fullback Maicon (pictured), a guy so good he relegates Barca’s Dani Alves, who would start for every other the national team in the world, to the bench without anyone thinking there’s even a debate. He’s devastating offensively, huge, fast, excellent on D--just the perfect wing defender. â†µ

â†µâ†µAs far as the most important player in the tournament, it’s Wayne Rooney. With Rooney on form England is a half-credible threat to win the World Cup. Without him, they’re just another inevitably disappointing Three Lions outfit.â†µ

â†µâ†µKogod: Leo Messi is the best player in the world, and Julio Cesar is my pick for most important to his country. Most of the attention is on the outfield players, but a strong presence in goal will carry Brazil a long way.â†µ

â†µâ†µShin Guardian: This will be an unpopular answer, but as the mainstream media falls over itself to anoint Lionel Messi the best, TSG contends Maicon for Brazil holds the belt.â†µ

â†µâ†µAs for most important, well, I would have said Michael Essien or Didier Drogba, but both may not play. No, that title goes to Wayne Rooney. Surrounded by international class at his club Manchester United, can the England talisman deliver on the big stage and take England, finally, back to the next level?â†µ

â†µâ†µ2Yellows: Lionel Messi is the best player in the tournament (playing for a team that’s going to wildly disappoint an entire continent save for Brazil). Sadly, the most important player to his team is probably Didier Drogba of Cote d’Ivoire, who if healthy, may have been able to get them past an average Portugal side into knockouts. As it is, he’s hurt, will be way less than 100% if he plays, and they will probably get knocked out in group.â†µ

â†µâ†µGoalkeeper: Messi is the best player. Rooney is most important to his team because if he plays well England can go a really long way. If he gets sent off for cursing or gets injured England have nothing in attack. Some will say Xavi for Spain and I’d put him second. Spain are so deep that they can win without him.â†µ

â†µâ†µDL: Messi is the easy answer and right now, it’s the best answer. Wasn’t it just a year ago that Cristiano Ronaldo was the best? Then Kaka a few months before him? How quickly we move on in soccer. As for the most important, it’s Iker Casillas. Spain could score more goals than anyone else, but eventually, their keeper will need to come up big if they expect to win.â†µ

â†µâ†µBonus question: Who is the early prediction for the Golden Boot?â†µ

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â†µâ†µCook: Rooney.â†µ

â†µâ†µKogod: I’m definitely going with David Villa (pictured). I believe Spain will make a deep run in the tournament, and Villa will rack up the goals.â†µ

â†µâ†µShin Guardian: David Villa, Spainâ†µ

â†µâ†µ2Yellows: David Villa of Spain (but I’m desperately hoping it’s Wayne Rooney).â†µ

â†µâ†µGoalkeeper: Miroslav Klose. He always scores lots of goals in the World Cup.  â†µ

â†µâ†µDL: Villa. A deep run for Spain plus a weak group could mean a lot of goals.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat will be the biggest storyline of the World Cup, other than the results of matches?â†µ

â†µâ†µCook: How incredibly bad a decision it was to host a World Cup in South Africa. This will be apparent immediately with on-the-ground fiascoes, but it will be worse long term as the billions of dollars put in the tournament reveal themselves to be an epic waste of money that South Africa doesn’t really have. See: Greek Olympicsâ†µ

â†µâ†µKogod: Probably the vuvuzelas, because they’ll annoy tens of millions of viewers for a month. Granted, the same could probably be said about the referees.â†µ

â†µâ†µShin Guardian: If the Bafana Bafana get knocked out early, how will the country react and will the World Cup be considered a success the first time in Africa?â†µ

â†µâ†µ2Yellows: I hate to say this but I think it’s going to be the ball. I saw a goal in the France-China friendly from a set piece that leads me to believe that it’s going to move in ways we’re not used to. Also, the set piece goal that the Aussies scored in the USA friendly caused all sorts of issues. Vuvuzelas will be part of the chatter but people will get used to it.â†µ

â†µâ†µGoalkeeper: Vuvuzelas. The American media will complain incessantly about them but will never say a word about blasting canned music over the PA during our sporting events.â†µ

â†µâ†µDL: I actually think the weather could be a concern. It’s winter, but temperatures could be in the 60s and 70s by day, and in some spots into the 30s at night. Could cramping become an issue? Could temperatures drop 20 degrees between halves?â†µ

â†µâ†µOkay let’s pick this thing. Who will be in the final four and who is going to win the 2010 World Cup?â†µ

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â†µCook: My final four is England, the Netherlands, Serbia, and Spain, with Spain winning over the Netherlands.â†µ

â†µâ†µKogod: England, Brazil, Argentina, Spain. Yeah, that’s probably a bit chalky. Oh well, I’ll take Brazil over Spain in the final. â†µ

â†µâ†µShin Guardian: Final Four: France, Brazil, Argentina, Spain. Winner: Brazilâ†µ

â†µâ†µ2Yellows: Final Four and winner - England, Serbia, Spain and Brazil. Brazil to win the whole thing. â†µ

â†µâ†µGoalkeeper: England, Brazil, Germany, Spain. Brazil wins it all. They’ve won the last two World Cups played outside Europe and will be familiar with the conditions after winning the Confederations Cup last year. They won’t be pretty but they’ll be effective.â†µ

â†µâ†µDL: My final four: U.S., Netherlands, Argentina, Spain. Winner: Netherlands over Spain. The bracket is terrible for Group G (Portugal/Ivory Coast/Brazil) where the winner could get the Netherlands in the quarterfinals and the second place team will see Spain in the second round. Totally imbalanced bracket and totally not fair to some teams, namely Portugal. And yes, I’ve completely let our flag cloud my judgment.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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