World Cup 2006: Play has begun

The world's largest sporting event began last Friday in Germany. No, it's not football or basketball or baseball. It's ... SOCCER .... , the world's most popular sport. It's the World Cup --- the world equivalent of a month long Super Bowl week where work grinds to a hault around the world as citizens take a couple of hours to cheer and yell for their team, then dance in the streets in celebration. Once every fours years.

32 countries ----- 8 groups of 4 ------ 3 round robin games per team ------ top 2 teams in each group advance ---- then 16 countries cheer their hearts out around the world as their teams battle in a 16 team, single elimination tournament to see who is the best in the world ----- of course, this doesn't include all the countries that were eliminated in the qualifying stages among the 5 regions around the world.

When Germany and Costa Rica kicked off to start the World Cup Friday, estimates said 1.5 billion people around the world watched the game. Even American Idol only had 60 million votes. and that ain't even anywhere close to the sheer population encompassed by the World Cup.

Group A: Germany, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Poland

Group B: England, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago, and Paraguay

Group C: Argentina, Netherlans, Ivory Coast, and Serbia & Montenegro

Group D: Mexico, Portugal, Angola, and Iran

Group E: Chzech Republic, Italy, United States, and Ghana

Group F: Australia, Japan, Brazil, and Croatia

Group G: France, Switzerland, South Korea, and Togo

Group H: Spain, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Ukraine


My picks to win each region: Germany, England, Argentina, Mexico, Czech Republic, Brazil, Switzerland, and Spain

******* updates to come later this week *******