Welcome!

I plan on getting some posts up soon.  You can expect around one per day, over the next 10 days leading up to the kickoff of the World Cup on June 11th.

'What exactly is this blog?', you're probably wondering.  I am a huge soccer fan, especially of the LA Galaxy and USA National team, and am extremely excited for the World Cup.  I recognize though, that I am in the minority in America.   Soccer is a fringe sport here at best, and not well understood by most people- sports fans/media included.  When the World Cup comes around (once every four years) , the media begins to give soccer a huge increase in coverage.  Tons of people who never cared about soccer at all try to follow along, and causal fans get truly sucked in.  It's hard not to- there's a reason the World Cup is the most popular and important sporting event on the planet.   

While it's easy enough to follow along without truly understanding what's going on, wouldn't it be much more fun for these new fans if they had a background in soccer?  This blog will be your background.  I want to help people who are less obsessed with soccer than I am enjoy the World Cup just as much.


On this blog, I'll post lots of information about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  I'll explain the general format of the World Cup, what it is and why it matters.  I'll give you a good background of the US team, as well as key information about other teams to watch.  I'll give you a list of the best games to watch in the opening stages.  I'll tell you who the best players are.  Finally, just before kickoff of the opening games, I'll give you my predictions.  Some parts of the blog might be obvious and too basic for you, and some of it might be more than you care to know.  Pick and choose your spots- read what interests you.  I'd also love feedback.  What do you want to know more about?  What things do you not understand?

I will not claim that all the information and opinions on this blog are my own.  I plan on using my own opinions and general knowledge of world soccer in tandem with the vast resources on the internet to bring you the information you need to know.  This blog will be a collection of many sources and opinions about the World Cup, brought together in one place, and simplified to make it accessible to everyone.  You don't have time to read thousands of articles, spend hours on wikipedia, and pour over countless videos.  I'll give you what you need to know here.  I'll try to make the posts as simple and basic as possible, but I'll always try to include links to columns for further reading, relevant wikipedia articles, and useful youtube videos.  If you just want the basics- I'll bring everything together for you here, but if you want more details, you can go deeper by clicking on links and videos.  What you get out of this blog and the World Cup is up to you.


Thanks for reading!

Gabe