Today is June 11, 2009. That means World Cup 2010 in South Africa is exactly one year away! I am already excited. I can't believe that it's been 3 years since the World Cup in Germany. We were living in Hawaii at the time, so the games were on early in the day. I had to tape the first game and then woke up at 5 every day to watch that game before I had to leave for work. Of course, I figured out a way to watch the second game each day while at work too.
As far as the U.S. National Team goes, they should qualify for next year's World Cup with relative ease. They are already about halfway through qualifying and still are on track. Unfortunately, they don't have to play very good teams to qualify, so it's not a measure of how good they are. In fact, the few qualifying games I have watched have confirmed just how "not good" we really are right now. Starting next week the U.S. team will play in a tournament in South Africa in preparation for WC 2010. Unfortunately, they have to play Italy in the first game and Brazil in the second game. The third game against Egypt might be meaningless, unless the U.S. can steal a point or two from two of the world's best teams. You never know what can happen, but it's going to be difficult. Hopefully the U.S. will have a good showing and at least play well. If not, from what I have seen so far, I expect the U.S. to struggle next year at the World Cup. Depending on how difficult their World Cup group is, it could be another 3 and out for the U.S.
England are my second team. I'm glad to see them dominating their World Cup qualifying group. So far they are 7-0-0 and are winning by an average of 3 goals a game. It sounds impressive, but their group is really weak. I know you can only play the teams in front of you, so I give them kudos for tearing up the likes of the Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Andorra. They've taken care of business. As with the U.S., I'm not sure I know how good England are right now considering their weak opposition. However, their qualifying results give me a reason to be cautiously optimistic that they will be a force to reckon with next summer. Typically England go out in the quarterfinal round, so anything less would be a poor showing and anything better (like the semi-finals - i.e. final four) would be fantastic.
In the domestic leagues, the transfer window was pretty quiet until the last week or two. If you haven't heard, Real Madrid just bought arguably the world's best player from Manchester United (Ronaldo) for about $130 million. Early reports show that he could earn as much as $750,000 A WEEK in wages. I'm sure it will be more around a paltry $400,000 - $500,000 (rolls eyes). That's in addition to Kaka, another one of the world's best players, that Real Madrid just dropped about $70 million to buy. Nothing like a cool $200 million for two players heading to the same team. I guess that's what happens in Madrid when your rivals Barcelona just beat you in the league and won the European Championship. In case you had forgotten, Real Madrid's manager, Juande Ramos, was the manager at Tottenham only 8 months ago. Talk about a major shift in fortunes.
Spurs have been quiet so far. Most people don't expect us to make more then 2 or 3 buys this summer. We will probably sell more players then we will buy. This time around we're going with stability and consistency in the dressing room versus the wholesale changes made the last few summers.
Having said all that, it's been nice to take a break from the sport. Although it essentially runs year round, at least the leagues take a three month break. It's summertime!