Welcome to my 2010 World Cup blog! Starting on June 11, FIFA will kick off its 19th World Cup in South Africa. This will mark the first time in the tournament's history that it will be hosted in the African continent.
In my first blog, I will explain how the tournament operates for the people that are following my blog but don't really follow soccer. In my next blog, I will write about who I believe will advance to the playoffs from the group stage. However, I will make changes to my picks as the provisional squads for the tournament will be announced (May 11) and as each team prepares with their friendly matches.
FIFA is the governing body of professional soccer around the world. FIFA splits the globe into six confederations by continent/geography. AFC is the Asian confederation, CAF is the African confederation, CONCACAF is the North and Central American confederation, CONMEBOL is the South African confederation, OFC is the Oceania confederation, and UEFA is the European confederation. Each confederation has a qualifying round in which the nations to compete for the 31 tickets to the World Cup (The host nation qualifies automatically to the tournament, in this case it was South Africa).
The qualified nations are then selected by lottery into eight groups of four teams. They are systematically chosen so all the groups are "equally" competitive, and teams from certain confederations (i.e. AFC, CONCACAF) do not fall in the same group. These previsions are taken because tickets to the World Cup are predetermined by the amount of nations each confederation represents. For example CONCACAF is only sending three teams to the tournament; However, UEFA is sending with the most teams, 13. Therefore, CONCACAF teams are not allowed in the same group, but can face each other in the playoff rounds.
Now, in the group stage, the top two teams from each group qualifies to the octave round by a points system. Each team will face their respective group members once. A win is worth 3 points, a tie is worth 1 point and a loss is 0. So for example, a team that wins all their group games, will end up with the maximum amount of points, which is 9 (A 1-1-1 [win-loss-tie] record will get a team 4 points. There are also tie breaker rules in cases teams end up with the same about of points, which include goals scored, goals allowed and head-to-head results.
In the playoff rounds, there is only one game per round. Now this is what i love about soccer. There's no best 4 out of 7 rounds; only one game! Do or die! In case there is a tie at the end of the 90 minutes of regulation, there will be 30 minutes of extra time. However, if the stalemate is not settled in extra time, there will be a penalty shoot-out.
I will now name the groups that have been selected for this year's World Cup. Just like any sport, there are rivalries that add to the excitement of the tournament (for example, the U.S. and England will face each other in the group stage).They're are certain myths that presides over teams that add to the pressure of winning (for example, Mexico's "5th game" myth, in which the team has never made it to the quarter-finals unless when the tournament was held in their country in '70 and '86). Also, players and story lines that add to the excitement of the game (for example, the group of death and who will win the Golden Boot [player of the tournament]).
Group A:
South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay and France
Group B:
Argentina, Greece, Nigeria and South Korea
Group C:
England, United States, Slovenia and Algeria
Group D:
Germany, Ghana, Serbia and Australia
Group E:
Holland, Cameroon, Denmark and Japan
Group F:
Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand
Group G (Group of Death):
Brazil, Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea
Group H:
Spain, Honduras, Chile and Switzerland
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