Wow! The last kick about before the start of the greatest show on earth -- and I do really mean the greatest show on earth. The FIFA 2010 World Cup is 4 days and some change from kicking of in Soccer City, South Africa next Friday.

Let's start with the USMNT v Australia; I thought the US, in a very professional, workman like, performance, got the required result.

The line up was good with the exception that I am not convinced about Ricardo Clark at this level but I do think that the combination of Altidore, Buddle, and Findley, and a splash of Herculez Gomez, can be very effective and very easily inter-changed.

Kenny had been talking all last week whether or not we are about to see a really defensive World Cup. Judging on what I saw yesterday in the US vs. Australia game, he could well be right with all the goals coming from various forms of counterattacking. With that said, I thought the US defense played well and soaked up a lot of pressure.
Terrific to see Edson Buddle live up to being named after Pele and getting his first two international goals

Bradley has a chance to leave a mark on his team and so this is what I think the line up should be vs. England next Saturday June 12th in Rustenburg:
Howard
Cherundolo Goodson DeMerit Bocanegra
Bradley
Dempsey Torres Donovan
Altidore Buddle

Yeah sure, you can maybe put in Edu, Clark, Findley etc...and I think what it proves, is that Bradley does have options and he might have a little more depth than we think.

My issue with the US is: if it's not going well and you need a game changer, who is that player?

Also, I am hoping that this world cup concludes with us all having a greater understanding of the style the US plays. I am never really sure how to describe the manner in which the US plays. I need the US to develop a personality on the pitch and I am not sure it has thus far.

Anyway, all will be revealed soon enough and I will give my tournament predictions at the end of this Kick About for all to digest.




Is the 2010 FIFA World Cup going to become known as the injury-riddled World Cup before it even starts? Let's look at who will, could, or might be out of this tournament.

Essien and Ballack were out before it even got started and squads were finalized. Since then: Rio Ferdinand gone for the entire month, Drogba could miss the first couple of group games (which only happen to be against Portugal and Brazil) with a fractured right arm which came from a challenge that should have seen the Japanese player (Marcus Tulio Tanaka) suspended for this tournament, Jon Obi Mikel is out of the entire tournament, and Arjen Robben has had a recurrence of his hamstring problems.

The World Cup can live without all those guys but one: Didier Drogba. Didier Drogba has essentially become the poster boy for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. He is plastered all over many of the bigger African capitals, he is a larger than life character, and he was recently named to Time Magazines "100 Most Influential People in the World" for the impact that he has in his own country and across the continent of Africa. This World Cup needs Didier Drogba.


When you turn on your TV on Friday for the first game between South Africa and Mexico, you will take a snapshot in your mind of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Here is how it works. That image will stay with you for the rest of your life. Every World Cup looks and sounds different. I go all the way back to 1970 Mexico, the grainy picture and the electrical humming on the broadcast. Show me any picture of any World Cup since 1970 (actually I have seen enough photos of 1966 you can include 1966) and I can instantly tell you what World Cup it was. They instantly have their own personality.

Such is the enormity of the World Cup that it stays with you forever and we will over the next month be searching for the memories that will define the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

Of course, I think a lot of us are more worried about the sound of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Getting a wee glimpse of the vuvuzelas in yesterday's US game, made me realize that as a viewing spectacle this World Cup, and those horns, could really turn off an American audience.


Feel that, I have to mention the disgraceful scenes outside Anfield on Thursday. Liverpool fans burning the American flag as if we were witnessing scenes from Saigon or some tin pot Middle Eastern capital. The depths and depravity that this set of fans will go to, to make their silly points, has become laughable.

I am now wondering if they realize at all just how much damage they doing to Liverpool as a club. If you were a potential investor would you want to go anywhere near this club with this type of fan base. No thanks.

Yeah I know the line...they are a small but loud minority who do not represent all Liverpool fans. But that is the same argument that Muslims use about the Islamic Fundamentalists. Might be what you think, but it is not reality or perception and let's be honest perception is reality. Islamic Fundamentalist when they blow up buildings, fly planes into buildings, and blow people up, they represent the rest of Islam whether Islam likes it or not. The same goes for this ilk of Liverpool fan. They are doing far more harm than good.

Benitez has gone with a £6 million payout and will surely walk straight into the offices recently vacated by Jose Mourinho at Inter Milan. Meanwhile at Anfield, they made this move to oust Benitez without having a successor in place. Kenny Dalglish as an interim manager, with Roy Hodgson, Martin O'Neil, Sven Goran Erickson (a Liverpool fan) all in the frame to take over the hot seat.

If I am Martin O'Neil I want nothing to do with Liverpool. Yes they may well be a "big club" but they are a big club in turmoil. Kenny tells me that Torres to Chelsea is nailed on; Gerrard, I believe will choose this time to make his move and most likely abroad to Real Madrid to be with Jose Mourinho and be able to avoid the injunctions and stories about his private life etc.; Javier Mascherano could well go to Real Madrid; Yossi Benayoun could also end up at Chelsea. The likelihood of most of the other Spaniards leaving is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Additionally, Liverpool is no longer any kind of destination for the better players in the world with the state of the club, the tax issues in England, and the level of football that is likely to be played.

But really I want to talk to American Liverpool fans: Is it not time to make the decision club or country when your club and its fans are burning your country's flag in public and laughing about it?

I have had to answer some questions about my loyalties, or lack thereof, for Chelsea (all of which I am very comfortable with so far) and I am seeing more and more cases where people are looking at their clubs, and actions by their clubs or their clubs supporters, and asking themselves if this is really what they stand for. The world and blind faith of the football fan is having a bit of a re-think.


World Football Daily will be broadcasting every single day of the World Cup when there are games. We will only have a day off when the World Cup has a day off.

The show will be airing/streaming live at 2.30PM Pacific/5.30PM Eastern time every day, so that we can take in all the games before coming on the air.

We will be launching two terrific competitions this week:

1. Facebook: we are asking all our World Football Daily Facebook friends for one week to change their Facebook photo/image to the World Football Daily logo that I am hoping will be attached to this Kick About.
2. Then please change your status/what's on your mind to "I am listening everyday to World Football Daily for all my World Cup action, scores and commentary" or something like that.
3. We will be giving away 50-100 World Football Daily World Cup wall charts randomly so we hope everyone will do this for us for the next week.

The second competition is not unlike the one we have done for the Champions league the last few years. Fill out the bracket top to bottom. From the first game to the last! The rules breakdown like this:

1. You have to choose 14/16 countries that get into the Round of 16.
2. You have to choose 7/8 teams that advance from the Round of 16 to the Quarter Finals.
3. You have to be perfect from the Quarter Finals through the Final to win.

The winner, if there is one, will win an iPad or the latest iPod, we have not decided quite yet.

We hope you will get involved with both of these competitions/promotions as every little bit helps in the promotion area.


Lastly, a word and huge props to the LA Galaxy! Without Buddle and Donovan and, yes, and Beckham, they are rolling all over this league.

They have played 12, won 10, and drawn 2. They are unbeaten with over a third of the season gone, and I am pretty sure that everyone thought that once Landon and Buddle departed on World Cup duty there would a lull in their play. Not so much. Last week they win away at, also unbeaten at the time, Columbus, and on Saturday they dismantled the Houston Dynamo.

It is amazing what good management can do without the continual circus of one David Beckham, when a team gets to focus on the job at hand and everyone in the squad is treated equally.

OK here are my World Cup predictions:
Group A: Mexico/Uruguay
Group B: Argentina/South Korea
Group C: England/USA
Group D: Germany/Serbia
Group E: Netherlands/Cameroon
Group F: Italy/Paraguay
Group G: Brazil/Ivory Coast
Group H: Spain/Chile

Round of 16:
Mexico 2 South Korea 0
England 1 Serbia 1 (Serbia win 4-3 on penalties)
Germany 2 USA 1
Argentina 3 Uruguay 1
Netherlands 3 Paraguay 2
Brazil 3 Chile 0
Italy 1 Cameroon 0
Spain 3 Ivory Coast 1

Quarter Finals:
Netherlands 1 Brazil 3
Mexico 1 Serbia 2
Argentina 3 Germany 1
Italy 1 Spain 2



Semi Finals:
Serbia 0 Brazil 2
Argentina 1 Spain 2

3rd Place Game
Serbia 1 Argentina 4

Final
Brazil 1 Spain 2

By the way: US 1 England 1


John Wooden 1910-2010 RIP.
There it is, enjoy the football, and until then.
Cheers,
Steven.