We are one day away from the heavily-anticipated 2010 World Cup Final Draw, an event that will be watched by hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Instead of waiting another 24 hours to find out what the groups will look like next June in South Africa, I've held a mock draw of my own. The results were as follows:
Group A: South Africa, Honduras, Uruguay, Serbia
Group B: Brazil, North Korea, Chile, Portugal
Group C: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, France
Group D: The Netherlands, Australia, Ghana, Slovenia
Group E: Spain, Mexico, Cameroon, Slovakia
Group F: England, Japan, Algeria, Switzerland
Group G: Germany, United States, Paraguay, Denmark
Group H: Italy, New Zealand, Cote d'Ivoire, Greece
- The United States was drawn into Group G along with Germany, Denmark and Paraguay, ranked 6th, 26th and 30th, respectively.

World Cup 2010 is just around the corner. As the last bunch of games for qualifications get played this year we face the possibility of a tournament without some of the games giants.

It's still early but in Africa we stand the chance of missing out on Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroon. In Central America Mexico are sitting 4th, although the change in management might be enough to catch up with Honduras.

By TRAVIS CLARK

With just two World Cup qualifying matches left for just about every country, it's the last chance for many countries to make a push at a spot in South Africa next year. Perhaps the best match slated for this weekend is the matchup between Germany and Russia.

The FIFA World Rankings were released today with little change in the top ten. The one exception is Russia dropping several spots, and Portugal moving into the top 10. The top 2 remain unchanged with Brazil on top and Spain close behind. The rest of the top ten is the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England, Croatia, France, and Portugal.

The draw for the 2010 World Cup is complete.
A couple of the groups contend for the "Group of Death" label. Group D with Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana and Group G with Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea. England got lucky paired with USA, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C. Hosts South Africa have a tough draw but will remain hopeful home advantage can lift them out of the group stage.

It's time we started getting to know the 32 teams who will compete at World Cup 2010, and what better way to get familiar than with a nickname? Below you'll find a list of the 32 teams, followed by their most common nickname or nicknames.

Team nicknames usually refer to the colour of the shirt (eg the Azzurri or Les Bleus) or some element of the football association crest (eg The Three Lions).

The U.S. Under-20 national team has its fate in its own hands. A win or a tie today vs. South Korea (12:45pm, ESPN2) in its final Under-20 World Cup group match will put the Americans into the second round of the tournament. A loss would leave seriously jeopardize the U.S. team's chances of advancing.

Good piece by Henry Winter in todays Telegraph, about how dangerous a First Round Draw England could get despite the fact that we will almost certainly be seeded (won't be officially announced untill all the teams are through and FIFA has worked out the best way to get the big teams through the fairest way for everyone to play against each other.

The United States Under-20 National Team will join Germany, Cameroon, and Korea in Group C play as part of the 2009 Under-20 World Cup. The tournament kicks off in Egypt on September 24th. "It's going to be a challenge for sure, but we had the same mentality heading into the 2007 U-20 World Cup," US goalkeeper Brian Perk said.

Interesting article over at the World Cup Blog today, asking the question, 'If 2010 World Cup qualifying ended today, who would make the trip to South Africa?'
32 nations will make the cut. Who would be in? Let's take a look ...

CONMEBOL:

Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Argentina

CONCACAF:
USA, Costa Rica, Honduras

Playoff: Uruguay (5th place CONMEBOL) vs Mexico (4th place CONCACAF)

ASIA:
Australia, Japan, S.

Africa's road to the 2010 World Cup heats up this weekend with a full slate of action as countries compete for the 5 available spots in South Africa.
There are already some teams in trouble.
Like Cameroon and Morocco, who have collectively qualified for nine previous World Cup finals.

New England has signed 19 year old Cameroonian striker Stephane Assengue Ombiogno. Ombiogno comes from Cameroonian club Daga Young Stars and will occupy one of the Revs seven available international roster spots, pending the approval of his U.S. P-1 Visa. The Revs are hoping they've captured another African gem in Ombiogno and Michael Burns(VP of Player Personnel) had this to say about the young Cameroonian:

"Stephane is a young forward who we believe has potential to make a great impact on the Revolution.

During the last month, Arsenal's Alexander Song has become more and more of a favourite amongst supporters, but according to coach Arsene Wenger, it's not always been like that.

The Frenchman said:

I read articles that stated Song was the worst signing I ever made since I am at Arsenal.

Watch World Cup qualifiers live here.

International press conferences at the best of times tend to be mundane, by the numbers affairs filled with platitudes by the key figures within the national side. Not much changes when it comes to conferences prior to World Cup qualifiers, or even the finals itself, but within the words always lies a common train of thought: There are few, if any greater honours in football than representing your country at the World Cup.

The Under-20 World Cup in Egypt is set to kick off this Thursday. ESPN has announced that it will broadcast all 52 matches on a combination of ESPN platforms including ESPN360.com, ESPN Classic, ESPN2 and ESPN.

The U.S. Under-20 national team opens its tournament on Saturday against Germany (9:55am ET, ESPN Classic/ESPN360.

The Under-20 World Cup in Egypt starts this Thursday. ESPN will broadcast all 52 matches on a combination of ESPN platforms including ESPN360.com, ESPN Classic, ESPN2 and ESPN. This is great news even though we still can't access ESPN360 (Not so Comtastic after all, eh Comcast?).

The U.

Cameroon took a massive step towards qualification with this comprehensive victory over minnows Togo.

1-0 Geremi

2-0 Makoun

3-0 Emana

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

"I'm getting the words 'Group of Death'..."

It's time for you to look into your Sepp Blatter-shaped crystal ball and predict which group England will land in tomorrow's World Cup draw in Cape Town. Exciting stuff, eh.

These are the four pots:

POT 1 (Seeds):
Argentina, Brazil, ENGLAND, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Holland

POT 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America):
Australia, New Zealand, Honduras, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, United States.

The draw for the U-20 World Cup took place in Luxor today. You can find the complete results here or at FIFA's site, but I'll just list the groups with CONCACAF participants: Group A: Egypt, Trinidad & Tobago, Paraguay, Italy Group C: USA, Germany, Cameroon, South Korea Group E: Brazil, Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Australia Group F: UAE, South Africa, Honduras, Hungary The strength of the U-20 teams is hard to figure out at first glance -- the reputation of the senior team doesn't give much indication of the junior teams -- but it's safe to say that Costa Rica.

My friend Tom Legg has a keen eye for talent. He's often telling me about this new prodigy or that new wunderkind that I should be keeping my eye on. He knows more about the Beautiful Game than just about anyone I know!
With that in mind, I asked him if he'd share a post he recently started on the famous soccer forum BigSoccer.

A young man has developed into a vital cog in our team, this man has been slated by fans and pundits in the past, but now we pull our hair when Wenger does not pick him. The player in question in Cameroon international, Alexandre Song.

Wenger bought Song from Bastia, had him on loan for a season and eventually paid €3.

Spain stay atop of this month's Fifa world rankings followed by the Netherlands and Germany, who change places. England are up in 6th place.
France are in 10th. Cameroon are the highest African team in 21st. Russia are 9th, with the USA in 14th.
1 Spain
2 Germany
3 Netherlands
4 Italy
5 Brazil
6 England
7 Argentina
8 Croatia
9 Russia
10 France
11 Portugal
12 Turkey
13 Paraguay
14 USA
15 Czech Republic
16 Switzerland
17 Greece
17 Uruguay
19 Ukraine
20 Serbia
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Manchester City have ended their interest in Barcelona's star striker Samuel Eto'o. The former has made a ₤25 Million bid for the Cameroon International and rumours were ripe after Barca were also prepared to let him leave. But the wait and watch game has ended as the player could not make up his mind.

.World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 1) Denmark 1 1 Portugal Hungary 1 2 Sweden World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 2) Moldova 0 0 Luxembourg Israel 0 1 Latvia Switzerland 2 0 Greece World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 3) Poland 1 1 Northern Ireland Slovakia 2 2 Czech Republic World Cup qualifiers [.

United States U-20 midfielder Jared Jeffrey and his teammates are bursting with confidence following Tuesday's emphatic 4-1 victory over Cameroon at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Thomas Rongen changed half his team, but stuck with his formation, and a decision that started out looking like it might be a stubborn mistake wound up being a smart move that has the U.S. Under-20 national team in great shape at the Under-20 World Cup.

The Americans trotted out a 4-3-3 formation for the second straight match, doing so despite the same formation being largely ineffective in a 3-0 loss to Germany.

The 2010 African Cup of Nations kicks off on January 10th. Earlier this week, we got our first look at the Puma kits that will be worn by Angola (home), Cameroon (home and away), Ivory Coast (home and away) and Morocco (home) during the tournament. Now, several more kits for Puma-sponsored African national teams have [.

This weekend was the World Cup qualifying climax in Africa, and there was plenty of qualification drama to go around. The winners of each of the five groups qualified for World Cup 2010, and everyone else missed out. But there was a pretty decent consolation prize for the ten second and third placed teams, as World Cup qualifying doubles as Africa Cup of Nations qualifying and the top three in each group qualified for the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations (also known as the African Nations Cup, ACN and CAN) in Angola.

According to Football Italia, Samuel Eto'o has cemented his reputation as the Oprah Winfrey of footballers by giving each and every member of the Cameroon national team, which he captains, a £30,000 watch simply because they qualified for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, every other national team captain is cursing his name for making them look bad.

In October, Puma unveiled the 2010 football kits for the eleven African teams it sponsors: Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Egypt, Tunisia, Namibia, Morocco, Angola, Senegal and Togo. At that time, Puma also announced the signing of Algeria FA with Les Fennecs (The Desert Foxes) becoming part of the Puma football portfolio from January [.

Njanka's FWG deserved to win this World Cup group game for Cameroon, but Toni Polster equalised for Austria in the 90th minute, the party pooper.

Great news today for our star player last season, Sebsatien Bassong. Cameroon have named Newcastle United center-back Sebastien Bassong in their squad for the World Cup qualifier against Morocco on June 7, the national soccer federation said on Monday. Paris-born Bassong, 22, is a former French Under-21 international but because he did not play a competitive match [.

June was one exciting month of international football. World Cup qualifiers and Confederations Cup shook up the FIFA and Mad About Fútbol World Rankings. Spain's time as the Number 1 team in the world is at an end although the European champions haven't fallen out of the Top 5 and should still be considered a strong favorite in South Africa 2010.

Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o has been officially presented as an Inter Milan player at the team's training centre in Appiano Gentile. Eto was part of a trade and cash deal that saw Sweden forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic move to FC Barcelona for Eto, 46 million euros and Belarus winger Alexander Hleb on a one year loan.

World wide world cup match days are the next best thing to the actual world cup, particularly when we are in the last throes of the schedule. It's like a 1st round March madness day, but twice as long. A few more tickets were punched, and a few other have the porter in the next cabin. Others are starting to feel a little too uncomfortable.

Good weekend for the USA, as none of Argentina/France/Portugal could win.
1) In Africa, this weekend's results mean that Cameroon and Tunisia should now be considered clear favorites to qualify. If Gabon can't beat Cameroon at home, then how they can hope to get a result on the road? Togo let in a last second equalizer against Morocco which probably ended their hopes.

Hertha Berlin midfielder Bryan Arguez has been added to the U.S. national team roster that will compete in the U-20 World Cup in Egypt later this month.

Arguez was summoned to replace forward Sam Garza, who will miss the tournament due to injury. The 20-year-old will join a team that already boasts talented youngsters such as Mikkel Diskerud, Brek Shea and Dilly Duka.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

From the "Not that guy again" department comes word that the referee for the U.S. Under-20 national team's crucial Under-20 World Cup match against Cameroon on Tuesday (12:40pm, ESPN2) will be none other than Jorge Larrionda.

Under-20 World Cup on ESPN2: USA - Cameroon at 12:30pm. UEFA Champions League on Fox Soccer Channel: Rangers - Sevilla at 2:30pm (Setanta at 6:30pm), Fiorentina - Liverpool at 5pm (Setanta at 2:40pm), and Arsenal - Olympiacos at 10pm. Setanta also has Barcelona - Dinamo Kiev at 4:45pm. CONCACAF Champions League on Fox Soccer: Columbus - Saprissa at 8pm.

After getting blasted in the opener by Germany, the insertion of Dilly Duka into the starting lineup was one of the major factors as the American turn the tide to waste Cameroon in Egypt.