South Africa 2010

The World Cup Draw for South Africa 2010 was this morning aaaand...

England and the United States are the the same group! I am so excited. As much as the commentary has been absolute bollocks all morning, it will be amazing. June 12th, write it down! Sure, the ESPN commentators have been nothing short of offensive and derogatory and ignorant, despite the fact that they have two British commentators sitting right there with them, but hey, why change now? It's going to be an amazing World Cup.

What I love about the World Cup is how it really unifies people of all nationalities, races and political backgrounds. Everyone has a sense of pride for their country and for a few brief moments manages to put aside their differences and watch the Beautiful Game. Even after their own country loses and the teams gradually fall away as it gets closer to the final, people go on to support other countries and other teams. The pride and adrenaline and heartache and humanity that emerges is incredible. Yes, there can be bad blood and yes, sometimes a misguided minority become violent, but the true spirit of the World Cup is the unity of the human race over political boundaries and and prejudices. Watching countries that struggle economically overcome, countries that suffer daily poverty and tragedy represent themselves with pride, countries that have nothing to lose triumph. The Beautiful Game.

The draw:

Group A:

South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B:

Argentina
Nigeria
Korea Republic
Greece

Group C:

England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Group D:

Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E:

Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F:

Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G:

Brazil
Korea DPR
Côte d'Ivoire
Portugal

Group H:

Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

Three Lions. Oh yes.

-K