England, Algeria, and Slovenia! I'm so excited that we drew England. It will be a lot of fun to see the USA play all of the English players that I watch play on a weekly basis. Not only that, but it's going to be the first game of the group and on a Saturday (June 12th). Could this be a repeat of the famous 1950 win over England (otherwise known as the Miracle on Grass)?
As far as the rest of the group goes I couldn't be happier. I think it's naive at this point to take anyone for granted, but the other two teams are hardly powerhouses in the football world and just barely qualified. Relative to who else we could have drawn from their respective pots, these two countries would surely be considered in the easier half. Sure, they beat some other good teams to get here, but that's true of anyone in the World Cup (except maybe the Asian teams!). Everyone at next summer's tournament had to beat someone else to get this far...hence the word "qualification". So, even though it won't be easy I think we'll have enough to advance out of this group. Then again, you never know what team is going to show up and so I also wouldn't be surprised if we're "put in our footballing place" like we were 4 years ago.