It's the most expensive production in the history of ESPN, with a crew of 300 ensconcing themselves in South Africa as I type. Breathless AP articles praise this unprecedented level of commitment:

The same network that drew criticism for calling 20 matches from U.

One of the things about the World Cup is that it puts the sport into perspective. With 64 games in one month, it's easy to get a cross-section of where a country is. How well it's doing relative to the other teams in the tournament. What the level of officiating is. And what improvements are necessary.

One of the most curious, and apparently guilt-induced, posts of the new year:

But in terms of the big picture of US soccer and racialized discourse, please think about what you say and why you say it. I am not saying we cannot fawn over a speedy Davies run, just fawn for the right reasons.

Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, John Terry, Ashley Cole. An illustrious lot, these world footballing stars would make the starting XI of just about every squad on the planet and are known from the Midwest to the Midlands.

Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, Tim Howard.

Italy's Giampaolo Pazzini reacts near New Zealand captain and former DC United defender Ryan Nelsen

Is this the changing of the guard or world parity? Have the many surprising and even shocking group play results so far been unusual or does the quadrennial break give us upset amnesia?

Where is the sniper?

(Full disclosure: I'm wearing an Orange Netherlands kit while I type this, I'm not Dutch, but I enjoy Eredivisie, Ajax and Robin van Persie)

The Netherlands and Brazil played what should have been one of the best matches thus far in the 2010 World Cup on Friday.

An excuse for a little shut-eye

There are 64 total matches at the World Cup and I will admit to being a guy that will try to watch every single one of them. I will do it with very little effort in fact.

But if I needed to take a few games off to keep my endurance up for the long haul, here are five games I could miss and not be upset at myself for doing so.

The 2010 world cup in South Africa looks promising to be the best yet. There's huge quantities of talent spread out across the Groups. In addition to the football being played on the pitch, here are five reasons this summer's world cup will be the best yet for the fans.

1.

Union news

Robert Pires admits to SkySports that his future is uncertain at Villarreal and that the Union has been in contact. But he denies that he has spoken to any club about a move. "During the last few weeks I have been the subject of unjustified attacks and lies about my future," he said. "I have not traveled to France to talk with other teams.

The U.S.men's national soccer team trains on June 1, 2010 in Pretoria, South Africa. The United States will face England for their World Cup opener on June 12. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

To see more pictures of the U.S. soccer team, click here.

By Ollie Irish

Miss Wiltshire, aka Megan Bowyer, 21, from Easterton near Devizes, models an England hat designed for Royal Ascot with the World Cup in mind.

Megan will progress into the Miss England competition later this year. Hmm. Hmmmm. Really? Dubious.

It's a moment we'll never forget in U.S. soccer history. Landon Donovan put the Americans into the knockout stage with a goal in stoppage time.

It's easily the most heart-stopping goal in U.S. history and I want to know where you were watching it.

I was with my son watching (and working) and got up and did a dance after a loud scream prompting him to ask "What's wrong daddy?

The 6 years spent at Old Trafford and the £80 million pocketed by Manchester United for his transfer to Real Madrid may never have happened had destiny played a different hand for Cristiano Ronaldo...
Continue to the full story

If the 2010 World cup doesn't become a huge ratings success for ESPN, it won't be from a lack of effort.

ESPN Executive Vice President John Skipper admitted recently that the network has spent more money on the World Cup than any other sporting event it has ever covered.

On the surface, this may not seem like a big deal.

Well the 30 players named in Fabio Capello's England squad have had multiple trainng sessions and two games to earn their place on the plane to South Africa.

Now is the time that this squad must be trimmed to 23 players, meaning that 7 players will soon receive the dreaded phone call ending their World Cup dreams for at least four years if not forever.

U.S. national soccer midfielder Stuart Holden, lower left, playfully flexes his muscles while posing with area students after an open training session at Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria, South Africa on Sunday June 6, 2010. The U.S. team is preparing for the upcoming World Cup, where it will play in Group C.

We present an epic contribution from Bill at Bill's Sports Maps on the 2010 World Cup, that event you might have heard starts this week.

Bill's illustrated map features all 32 team jerseys, and statistics on World Cup performance. It's pretty damn awesome. Click on the image below for the glorious, full-size version.

Union/Independence/MLS

The coach of the Kansas City Wizards, who the Union are playing tonight, likes the way the Union plays. The game is at 8pm on the Live Well Network. That's Comcast channel 245/246, Fios channel 465/466.

Vote Seitz for the NAPA MLS Save of the Week. (Bet you didn't think you would read that sentence a few weeks ago.

Sport culture seems to be the one discursive space in which we can declare that we were robbed, that our team was cheated, that the game wasn't fair - and we don't come off as bitter or resentful. This sort of anger - at being kept out of the World Cup final's by someone's handball, or being cheated of the three points awarded to a win by a rogue referee - is perfectly allowed - a certain sense of injustice is in fact nursed into an art.

The offices, factories and roads of England will fall silent at 3pm GMT today as virtually the entire population pause to watch the national sides final group game of the World Cup.

The nation will collectively hold its breath once more, as the hope and torment of the England national team captivates for another 90 minutes at least.

From the England-Germany game report on FIFA's World Cup website:

England pulled a goal back in the 37th minute when a short Lampard corner from the right was played to Gerrard who crossed into the box. Upson, atoning for his earlier error, rose highest above the Germany defence and with Neuer stranded, powered a header into the net.

FIFA have decided to unify the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player awards into just the Ballon d'Or, a smart decision which will cause less confusion. And now it's just a few hours before the Uruguay - Netherlands World Cup semi-final and the Ballon d'Or nominees have been named. 11 nominees of which 9 are still playing in the World Cup, it seems like the tournament will be decisive in who will win the award as it looks to be a tight race.

Most of the Spanish newspaper front pages today go with a variation on a simple "Spain, world champions" headline (as El Pais does), but as commenter ursus actos noted yesterday in our discussion of Catalan nationalism and the complicated support for Spain's national team in the region, a victory for Spain could easily be seen as a victory for Catalonia, with half the Spanish team having also represented the Catalan national team.

One thing, maybe us soccer nerds sometimes forget, is there is a growing generation of kids who've lived their entire lives with the existence of MLS, with USMNT games on ESPN, with three soccer-only cable channels with YouTubes, etc. They've never known life were it was actively difficult to find anything of quality to read about the world's game, or specifically in this case, the U.

Buddle smashes home a goal against Australia

Edson Buddle was a late arrival to the discussion when the United States national team was being put together, but what an addition he's made.

The hotter-than-Florida-in-August striker scored twice for the U.S. in their 3-1 win over Australia in a game that was marked by hard tackles and slow action in the second half.

A lot has been made about the France/Uruguay match being boring. A large reason for the perception of a boring match is Uruguay's defensive style of play. La Celeste knew France was the better side and would have to focus on surviving with a draw. They sat back and let France attack, waiting for opportunities to counter.

Taken before the start of the World Cup, of course, in east London.

Photo credit: Herschell Hershey on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

The United States have a pretty simple task. A win against Algeria and they are into the 2nd round. They could have had qualification wrapped up but thanks to an error by the official and slack defending in the first half. We will get to that later. The truth is that the USA must come out against Algeria and defend well.

USA v Ghana
Round of 16, 2010 World Cup
Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg
Saturday, 26 June 2010
1930 (BST) / 2030 (Local Time)

The Yanks v the Black Stars, this game has history written all over it. Not only is this Africa's best hope now of success in the first World Cup on African soil, it's also the United States' best chance of emulating the 2002 team by progressing to the quarter-finals or even beyond, since the opposition in the quarter-finals is not top of the class.

By Ollie Irish

You can see that Stevie Gerrard and co. were delighted to still have to wear the Capello Three-Piece Suit of Shame for the duration of their long, miserable flight home from South Africa to Heathrow. Naughty schoolboys, the lot of 'em. Detention for a week, at least.

Go team go!

Okay, you've all see pictures of "cell-phone girl"- or whatever other name she's been called and if you haven't, there is she is to the right.

Strategically placed at public viewings, she was deemed to be an average Paraguay fan, cheering on her country in Asuncion.

Also strategically placed was her cell-phone, which instantly drew attention to other areas in Asuncion.

Luis Suarez and the handball shame. Another controversial talking point in a World Cup that's been full of them.
Saint or sinner?
Truthfully who wouldn't have done the same thing? It's cheating. Of course it is. But it also saved his team. He broke the rules in the knowledge that to do so would give his team hope.

A nice little graphic with Forlan's tournament statisticsAfter the World Cup, it's not all over, there's still plenty of awards to be dished out even if your team didn't lift the trophy. When the nominees were announced, I put up a post with the Golden Ball (best player of the tournament) and Best Young Player award nominees, I forgot about the Golden Glove (best goalkeeper of the tournament), but that award seemed already decided.

As preparation gets into full swing for the 2010 World Cup Japan have taken the next step in their preparation and they have released their new World Cup away shirt. The Japan away shirt is manufactured by Adidas with the traditional Adidas stripes on the shoulder. The Japan football shirts have ...

Its funny. Four years ago, heading into Germany for the 2006 World Cup, we were convinced Lampard and Gerrard were the two best midfielders in the world (they'd come second and third at the 2005 Ballon d'or). They both misfired at the World Cup, spawning what we now think of historically as the Lampard/Gerrard Problem.

This summer the 2010 World Cup will determine the best team in the world. Everyone has their opinion on who will win, but it is clear that Brazil and Spain will be very strong teams. Once again Brazil is loaded with some of the world's most recognizable players. They easily advanced through the qualifier, but the [.

Welcome back CD9!

I told you that there was some good news in American soccer today and it comes in the form of Charlie Davies returning to training.

The 23-year-old striker rejoined his French club Sochaux today and made the announcement on his Twitter account.

I've resumed full training with my club!

I have found a link to the most awesome 2010 World Cup match schedule / calendar / teams / matches.

The Interactive graphic is in Spanish and English and depicts Match Schedules fro the days from 11 June to 11 July.

Other sections features cities and stadiums; national teams; groups and stages.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."Crazy, in the span of one Rob Stone report the USMNT friendly tune-up match Saturday with Australia took one on a new tenor, eh?The initial ESPN report which I saw at the gym had these words flashing across the screen: "Altidore .

Four years ago, I looked at a number of factors in an attempt to see which would best predict the 16 teams to advance out of the group stage: form, GDP, odds, qualifying record, population, etc. In the end, the best predictors were the ELO rankings and the betting odds, which both got 13/16 right. Both missed Australia/Ecuador/Ghana.