Tuesday, December 13, 2005

World Cup draw

I’m a bit late by this one, as it happened on Friday.  I saw the draw on TV, but you have to be a real fanatic fan of soccer to retain your interest through that entire program.  The announcers, the Irishman Tommy Smith among them, sat and pondered the possibilities for England and the US for about a half an hour, and then the draw took the rest of the hour. 

The draw consisted of a proper Englishman as MC, and a host of soccer legends, like Pele and Johan Cryuff, picking team names out of a bowl.

Basically, the results of that draw have produced a group of death.  Here’s the draw.  The United States happens to be in that group of death this year.  The US has to fight it out with Italy, the Czech republic and Ghana just to make it out of the first round.  Our chances are bleak. 

However Ives Galarcep has a more positive take on this.

      Rather than dreading the worst-case scenarios and imagining a result similar to World Cup 1998, when the United States went winless and finished in last place, American soccer fans should be relishing the opportunity their team has to make a statement. World Cups are about memories and triumphs that endure.

If the US were to get out of that group alive, they would most probably be matched up with Brazil.  Talk about making a statement.

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