World Cup 2010

I won't try to write an in-depth preview of the World Cup, because I know I'm not enough of an authority on soccer to try anything like that. I'm trying to get more into the game, but it's not easy to be a soccer fan in the United States.

I've tried to watch a few Philadelphia Union games, but it's hard to watch when you realize you're basically watching a Triple-A league. People love watching the World Cup because they know they're watching the best play in the World. The same can't be said about the MLS. It's been a decently successful league that will expand to 20 teams by 2012, but I can't see it ever completely catching on because it's not the best. The NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA are all the best leagues of their sports in the world. If MLB suddenly moved to Europe, would you be satisfied to watch Triple A baseball? Probably not.

For soccer to gain more of a foothold in America, there needs to be more TV coverage of European club soccer. I know there's some now, but it's usually live, hence in the afternoon on the East Coast in America, when no one will watch it. Why not put a few taped games of the English Premier League on in primetime on ESPN 2 to see how it catches on?

After watching the first half of the Mexico-South Africa game, I realize there are a few things I would love to see change about soccer. First, enough of these horns. Yeah, it's kinda fun for a little bit, but it just gets annoying after about the first five minutes of the match. Plus it drowns out any of the actual crowd noise, so when something exciting happens on the pitch, the crowd reaction doesn't seem to match.

Second, why do they feel the need to have instant replays of the stupidest things? I don't need to see a slow-mo replay of the ref giving out a yellow card. I don't need to see a slo-mo replay of a coach shaking his head. I don't need to see a slo-mo replay of a guy wagging his finger.

Speaking of the finger wagging, it needs to be outlawed from soccer. There's only one man in sports who should wag his finger, and that's Dikembe Mutombo.

The US should get out of their group; of course that's what we said four years ago when they scored a total of one goal. I'm not sure why everyone's making their match against England the most important game in US soccer history. They can lose this game and still easily move on to the second round. Their Confederations Cup matches against Spain and Brazil were much more important, but I guess ABC needs to get their ratings somehow.

Anyway, my pick to win the World Cup is Netherlands. Why? 1) I'm rooting for them 2) They've been on fire since the qualifying stages and have an easy path to the quarterfinals.

EDIT: Goal, South Africa, amazing celebration