EASY. England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks. That four-letter acrostic sums up the English view of yesterday's World Cup draw. All of the press say that England will have a comfortable start to the group phase, and in some quarters, there is already talk of a deep run through the knockout phase all the way to the Final on 11 July 2010. Even though a couple of columnists say a run to the Final won't be that easy, no one is predicting any difficulty in the group stage. Well, almost no one -- Henry Winter in the Telegraph argues that the England-USA match is critical to both teams in avoiding a potential second-round clash with Germany. At any rate, it might be best to hold on to this post and to these links in case reality proves something different. You have to say that the draw has given the Fleet Street tabloids a chance to come up with some clever headlines, like "The best England group since the Beatles". Of course, Fabio Capello is being a lot more circumspect about the draw, but that's his job.
Slovenia and Algeria recognize that it will be a tough group but still like their chances, and the Slovenians have already started to wind up Wayne Rooney. What I find interesting is that, from the press reports I'm reading, the USA doesn't appear in neither Slovenia's nor Algeria's calculations at all.
England may have been celebrating the draw, but the Americans were celebrating it, too. This is probably the most favorable group that the Americans have faced since 1994 (and that was with a national team that was not entirely professional), with perhaps the weakest of the seeds, one of the more lightly regarded European sides, and perhaps the weakest African side not named South Africa. However, we're talking about a side that went undefeated through qualifying, another that knocked off a more talented and favored Russia, and a team that knocked off the reigning African champions in a winner-take-all playoff. All attention in the States is focused on the opening match against England, and that Saturday afternoon match could break viewership records in the USA. Landon wants to square off against David. Dempsey, Howard, Altidore, and others relish an opportunity to face opponents who they see (and play with) week after week in England. It's hard not to talk about 1950 if you're an American, but 1950 is history. It's time to create a 2010. And let's not get too cocky out there.
I'll have more tonight on the Honduras and Mexico groups.
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