World Cup: Six months to whip yourself into a frenzy
The draw for next year's World Cup in South Africa took place on Friday evening amid an expected amount of pomp and hype. There was endless build-up to the coverage, followed by the actual coverage of the draw itself on Sky Sports News. The broadcaster is never one to miss an opportunity to milk an event.
Personally I ended up plumping for watching it live on BBC 2. Not that I'm a big fan of Jonathan Pearce's commentary, but I could at least bare the clichéd platitudes of Lineker's motley crew.
The draw was given that added glamour of having Hollywood's most famous South African, Charlize Theron as a co-host. She was joined by the unintentionally humorous Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke, who spoke with an accent akin to Inspector Clouseau, but jollier.
The two of them spent far too long relaying to the crowd and the live feed, what the dynamics of the draw was and why. This was mostly conveyed by utilising Charlize's acting prowess, by which she played a not atypical women who was feigning interest in the sport.
An assembly of famous sportsmen and women were then presented on stage for the honour of picking out the balls that would determine which countries will play which next summer. All were representatives of South Africa in football, rugby and cricket except for Haile Gebrselassie and finally David Beckham.
The former England captain, who is widely expected to make the England squad for a fourth World Cup, was clearly the star attraction of the whole event. His presence in Cape Town was not only for the purposes of the draw, but more importantly for the English FA's ongoing campaign to secure hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup.
If reports are to be believed, Beckham's general standing and superstar status is becoming increasingly integral to a campaign that has been a little under whelming thus far. This was again seen with England's own video presentation to support their 2018 bid. The mini feature was entirely animated and unlike virtually all the other perspective host nations for 2018 and 2022, there was no lauding of their own criteria such as stadiums, cities or footballers.
The draw itself, when we finally got there, lasted for a little over 25 minutes. The excitement growing throughout with each circulation of picks and as the groups for 2010 slowly unveiled themselves.
For every European Championships and World Cup, there is an obligatory 'group of death', and 2010 will be no different. In fact you could realistically argue that next summer will have two groups- D and G, perhaps Dolce&Gabbana should organise sponsorship..!
Should either Germany and Brazil fail to get out of those groups, it would still amount to a major, major shock, but there is certainly some intriguing matches worth waiting for. I have a feeling that the Ivory Coast may claim the World Cup's first major scalp by ousting Portugal from group G, whereas I have an inkling that Australia will emerge as Germany's closest challengers in Group D.
As for England, there is certainly a case of the luck of the draw. The biggest threat of Group C must surely be the USA, who famously ended Spain's long unbeaten run on their way to the Confederations Cup final in the summer. Matches against Algeria and Slovenia should be reasonably surmountable, put it another way and if England were to struggle against those countries they would be far from the second favourites that English betting claims them to be.
Now that the tournament is scheduled and raring to go, stadium and transport permitting, the 2010 World Cup is looking like it could live up to it's billing as the greatest one ever. If you were to swap the hosts with France amongst the top seeds, then they would represent the traditional top-billed international teams. As well as this, 2010 will have all previous World Cup winning nations competing once again- the potential for some mouth-watering line-ups in the knock-out stages beckons.
It is easy to forget that there are still the domestic seasons to be completed between now and then, 186 days and counting. There is no fear of getting football burnout though, fans just like the players need to get themselves conditioned and trained for the world's biggest sporting event.
Planning the days around your work and trying to watch as many matches as possible, it is only every four years after all! It doesn't occur to yourself that you may be taking things to far when trying to convince your girlfriend the importance of you watching New Zealand taking on Slovakia, who knows- it could be a classic!
The good thing is that there is plenty of time to get yourself primed for the big kick-off on June 12th, so get your annual leave booked off (no need for a holiday!) and your excuses ready..
Personally I ended up plumping for watching it live on BBC 2. Not that I'm a big fan of Jonathan Pearce's commentary, but I could at least bare the clichéd platitudes of Lineker's motley crew.
The draw was given that added glamour of having Hollywood's most famous South African, Charlize Theron as a co-host. She was joined by the unintentionally humorous Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke, who spoke with an accent akin to Inspector Clouseau, but jollier.
The two of them spent far too long relaying to the crowd and the live feed, what the dynamics of the draw was and why. This was mostly conveyed by utilising Charlize's acting prowess, by which she played a not atypical women who was feigning interest in the sport.
An assembly of famous sportsmen and women were then presented on stage for the honour of picking out the balls that would determine which countries will play which next summer. All were representatives of South Africa in football, rugby and cricket except for Haile Gebrselassie and finally David Beckham.
The former England captain, who is widely expected to make the England squad for a fourth World Cup, was clearly the star attraction of the whole event. His presence in Cape Town was not only for the purposes of the draw, but more importantly for the English FA's ongoing campaign to secure hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup.
If reports are to be believed, Beckham's general standing and superstar status is becoming increasingly integral to a campaign that has been a little under whelming thus far. This was again seen with England's own video presentation to support their 2018 bid. The mini feature was entirely animated and unlike virtually all the other perspective host nations for 2018 and 2022, there was no lauding of their own criteria such as stadiums, cities or footballers.
The draw itself, when we finally got there, lasted for a little over 25 minutes. The excitement growing throughout with each circulation of picks and as the groups for 2010 slowly unveiled themselves.
For every European Championships and World Cup, there is an obligatory 'group of death', and 2010 will be no different. In fact you could realistically argue that next summer will have two groups- D and G, perhaps Dolce&Gabbana should organise sponsorship..!
Should either Germany and Brazil fail to get out of those groups, it would still amount to a major, major shock, but there is certainly some intriguing matches worth waiting for. I have a feeling that the Ivory Coast may claim the World Cup's first major scalp by ousting Portugal from group G, whereas I have an inkling that Australia will emerge as Germany's closest challengers in Group D.
As for England, there is certainly a case of the luck of the draw. The biggest threat of Group C must surely be the USA, who famously ended Spain's long unbeaten run on their way to the Confederations Cup final in the summer. Matches against Algeria and Slovenia should be reasonably surmountable, put it another way and if England were to struggle against those countries they would be far from the second favourites that English betting claims them to be.
Now that the tournament is scheduled and raring to go, stadium and transport permitting, the 2010 World Cup is looking like it could live up to it's billing as the greatest one ever. If you were to swap the hosts with France amongst the top seeds, then they would represent the traditional top-billed international teams. As well as this, 2010 will have all previous World Cup winning nations competing once again- the potential for some mouth-watering line-ups in the knock-out stages beckons.
It is easy to forget that there are still the domestic seasons to be completed between now and then, 186 days and counting. There is no fear of getting football burnout though, fans just like the players need to get themselves conditioned and trained for the world's biggest sporting event.
Planning the days around your work and trying to watch as many matches as possible, it is only every four years after all! It doesn't occur to yourself that you may be taking things to far when trying to convince your girlfriend the importance of you watching New Zealand taking on Slovakia, who knows- it could be a classic!
The good thing is that there is plenty of time to get yourself primed for the big kick-off on June 12th, so get your annual leave booked off (no need for a holiday!) and your excuses ready..
Comments