Courtesy Mike Towers, Editor of World Cup Bafana Bafana Blog
Since we are all still in the dark about the actual contents of these tapes I called on my underground sources Big Jim and Big Jim’s Scary Half-Brother to track them down.
My instructions were clear – get those tapes before the press splash them all over the front pages. And so, after several hours of sitting in pubs near Tottenham Court Road gazing wistfully at passing foreign students, my boys finally sprang into action.
By Kevin Koczwara
The United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) has been shuffling players in and out of their camp in the last few months. Bob Bradley has been trying to fill in the last available spots on the World Cup Roster and address a few of the issues the squad has.
The big gap I can see on the U.S. side is at the left-back position that has been inhabited, inexplicably, by Jonathan Bornstein during the Bradley era. Come June and the World Cup in South Africa, Bornstien will either have to improve by leaps and bounds, or the USMNT will have to find another player to fill the position. Whoever plays on the left-side will have to be in top form if the U.S. hopes to make it out of the group stage and move forward in the tournament.
Courtesy Mike Towers of World Cup Bafana Bafana 2010
Just when it seemed nobody was taking this year’s World Cup seriously, along comes an excellent article on why US “soccer” fans should hate England. It’s from an American writer who has rekindled my admiration for the birthplace of Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Bill Hicks.
The article by Ryan Thies of the Long Beach Post is a real treat. “Why USA Soccer Fans Need To Start Hating England” is all about the nature of sporting rivalries and why the US needs hate figures to bond as a nation.
By Kevin Koczwara
It was a great week for the United States Men’s National team when they clinched a qualifying spot for the World Cup. But the party ended quickly. Charlie Davies was involved in a horrific car accident that not only would halt his career, but would come close to taking his life. Then one of the U.S.’s stalwarts in the back, Oguchi Onyewu, went down with a horrific injury in a meaningless game.
But it looks like both players are working their way back from their long-term injuries and hope to be in form for their clubs soon and in the mix for the World Cup again.
Let’s check up on their progress.
By Kevin Koczwara
This will be the final entry into what was suppose to be a four part series on the group stage of the World Cup, but it has turned into a drawn out 6 part series. After this post I will write up a quick post with all of my predictions for winners of the group stages and let anyone disagree with me.
For this final entry I will talk about Group H — the last group. This may be the easiest group to predict. Continue reading
By Kevin Koczwara
I did not update yesterday because I went on an 8 hour journey to Maine and back for an interview. It was an amazing experience to drive that far, by myself, through what seemed like a never ending landscape. The drive also gave me plenty of time to think about a lot of things. And not surprisingly one of those things was Soccer. Continue reading
By Kevin Koczwara
I know I have been away for a long time and I am sorry for that. I was busy, very busy, with a job I had in the month of December. But, I am back and ready to go. So let’s start this column off with predictions for Group F.
Group F is a tough group with 2 defensive and strong-minded teams, one virtual unknown and a squad that won their group in European qualifying to many people’s surprise. Continue reading
By Kevin Koczwara
I am writing Group E as one blog post because the Dutch are a tough bunch of players to understand. They don’t live up to their potential or make life easy for themselves–the internal fighting and temper-tantrums never help there chemistry and chances.
This group also poses some other interesting questions: who will overlook the Danish squad and forget that they are one of the most formidable teams in the tournament–they play like the stingy Italians? Can Cameroon repeat their run into the Quarterfinals with their athletic and underrated squad? Is Japan going to surprise everyone and come in second in the group and move on, or will they be the chopping boys of the group?
By Kevin Koczwara
Today I will be discussing groups C & D of The World Cup. These are the groups with top-seeded England and Germany. These could also be the most unusual groups with some foreseeable upsets.
Lets start with the United States and England group that also features the underrated Slovenia squad.
Courtesy Wikicommons/ Audrey & Patrick Scales
By Kevin Koczwara
Let’s look at the first half of the Group Stages of the World Cup. The draw was Friday afternoon, and now that I have had some time to digest the pairings, I am going to make a few predictions. I will write a wrap-up of each group, two at a time, in this series. There will be four parts and all will be posted this week.
So let’s start it off with groups A and B.
