The Group of Heck

By now everyone who's anyone knows that England and the USA will play each other in the group stage of next summer's World Cup. All things considered, this is a reasonably good draw for both teams, in my opinion.

For example, we could be in Mexico's zapatos, having to face the host country and a good Uraguay as well as Ireland. (Hold on... what's that? Really? Really?) OK, France. Or in Korea's place with Brazil and Portugal in the group. Or Denmark's group with Netherlands, Japan, and Cameroon. Or Nigeria's, against Argentina, Korea, and Greece. Even Australia look to have a difficult road to the knockout stage with Serbia and Germany.

This time, even with the absence of Charlie Davies and Oguche Onyewu (no, I didn't look it up to see if I spelled it right), the US should look at a first-round exit as a severe disappointment. They've got solid defenders and a teriffically athletic midfield, and despite their recent friendly losses they have a strong top 11 or 13 players. And they've actually got an advantage in having played well in the Confederations Cup this year.

The worst thing about the World Cup draw is that now we have to wait six months for the games to begin!

I will be supporting the USA (obviously), England, Australia, Netherlands, and New Zealand. That should be enough to get me someone to root for at least through the quarterfinals.

What teams do you support? Will you be watching live? Will you see every minute of every game? Will you ignore the whole thing? Anyone want to come over to my house to catch a few games? Bring beer.