2010 World Cup USA Watch-USA v. England

Team USA opens up in World Cup Group C play with its first competitive match against England since the 1950 'Miracle on Grass'. That 1-0 game was rated as the greatest upset in FIFA history.

This time Team USA and team captain Landon Donovan won't be sneaking up on England or the rest of the world. They are ranked Number 14 in the FIFA world rankings, upset then FIFA World Number 1 ranked Spain last summer enroute to the Confederations Cup final with Brazil and have 14 players on this squad who play in the English Premier League.

The Americans will try to capture some of that almost 50 year old magic with a team that is the most diverse USA team ever put together for World Cup competition.

The USA men are trying to prove to the rest of the soccer playing world that we can hang and compete with the soccer superpowers. They also want to erase the memories of a less than satisfying 2006 World Cup tournament in Germany.

They tied Italy 1-1, but lost to Ghana and the Czech Republic to compile an 0-2-1 record in Group play and not advance.

If they want to advance in the 2010 edition of the World Cup tournament, this widely anticipated match against England is a critical step toward doing so.

More Semenya Setbacks

800m World Champion runner Caster Semenya of South Africa has been impatiently waiting to get back on the track since she burst onto the international track scene at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin.

She blistered the field with a 1:55:45 time that is the fifth best time ever run by a woman in history, and ever since then has been dogged by questions about her gender. The IAAF ordered gender test results are supposed to be available later this month.

Semenya is understandably frustrated and angry about the delays and being denied the opportunity to compete in a meet at Stellenbosch, South Africa at the request of Athletics South Africa (ASA). The ASA has counseled the 19 year old to await the IAAF gender test results before she returns to 800 meter racing.

She was left off the South African team competing in the 2010 IAAF African Championships in Nairobi, Kenya July 28 despite having qualified for it by virtue of her championship winning time in Berlin.

Semenya announced her intention to return to competition at the June 24 EAA meet in Zaragoza, Spain.

However, the Zaragoza EAA meet has been cancelled due to a budget shortfall according to the meet organizers. It had been in financial difficulties in past years and the Spanish Athletics Federation stated there was no chance of it returning this year.

So once again, Caster Semenya's return to track is on hold along with a definitive resolution to this gender controversy that has been painfully public for her and glacially slow in the way it has played out.

The cynic in me says maybe that was the intent in the first place, since the London Olympic Games are only two years away.

We'll find out at the end of the month.

Caster Semenya's Patience Running Out

19 year old South African runner Caster Semenya has patiently waited seven months for her competition status to be sorted out ever since she won the 800m world championship in Berlin last summer.

But it seems that her patience, and the patience of her attorneys is wearing thin.

"I hereby publicly announce my return to athletics competitions," Semenya said in a statement. "I am an athlete first and foremost, and it is vital for my competitiveness, my well-being and my preparations for events during the European summer that I measure my performance against other athletes."

"These processes have dragged on for far too long with no reasonable certainty as to their end."

She wants to return to international competition at a IAAF sanctioned race being contested in Zaragoza, Spain on June 24, the EAA Classic.

The IAAF medical staff has yet to complete the gender verification tests, and the ASA (Athletics South Africa) is uncomfortably caught in the middle along with Semenya until they do. They assert that until those test are completed, she is i9neligible to run either in South Africa or internationally.

Athletics South Africa acting chief Ray Mali asked "for the patience of Semenya and her advisers in the interest of all parties."

But I ask the question, how patient would you be if you were in Semenya's pumps?

She wants to run and get better with the Olympics only two years away and she's being forced to sit on the sidelines until some Monaco based bureaucrats make a decision?

To add to the drama, how patient would you be if your gender identity were subjected to worldwide speculation, attacks and derision while you're waiting for that sporting bureaucratic decision?

And while you're waiting, you sit with the knowledge that your potential competition you destroyed in Berlin are competing and honing their skills against each other.

"Some of the occurrences leading up to and immediately following the Berlin World Championships have infringed on not only my rights as an athlete," she said, "but also my fundamental and human rights, including my rights to dignity and privacy."

It's time for the IAAF medical team to end this, and get off their behinds and complete the medical verification tests as expeditiously as possible.

And after that happens, I'll be rooting for Semenya to kick some butt in every 800m race she runs from now until the Olympic Games in London and beyond.

2010 World Cup Draw

The eyes of the world were turned toward Cape Town for the draw setting up the groups for the upcoming FIFA World Cup Tournament in South Africa this summer.

I was interested along with the die hard soccer fans here in the States to see where Team USA would end up.

The soccer gods were smiling on us this time. Team USA ended up in Group C. The host South Africans ended up in Group A.

Group A

South Africa

Mexico

Uruguay

France


Group B

Argentina

Nigeria

Korea Republic

Greece


Group C

England

USA

Algeria

Slovenia


Group D

Germany

Australia

Serbia

Ghana


Group E

Netherlands

Denmark

Japan

Cameroon


Group F

Italy

Paraguay

New Zealand

Slovakia


Group G

Brazil

North Korea

Cote d'Ivoire

Portugal


Group H

Spain

Switzerland

Honduras

Chile

Top two teams out of each group advance. The 'Group of Death' for this tournament looks to be Group G. Frankly, any group Brazil is involved in is a 'Group of Death'.

The Brits may be salivating because they consider us and everybody else in Group C pushovers, but may I remind y'all about the 1950 'Miracle On Grass'.

It was a World Cup game in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in which a ragtag USA amateur team beat a heavily favored English squad 1-0 in one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. England ended up losing their next match to Spain by the same 1-0 score and failing to qualify for the next round.

England is our opening Group C match in the 2010 World Cup, and our guys are eager to atone for the poor showing in the 2006 World Cup.

Can another 'Miracle on Grass' happen? As former NFL coach Herman Edwards once said, "That's why you play the games.'

The US team we have now actually has far more talent than the 1950 one did and is actually ranked number 14 in the world. They won their CONCACAF Group and have qualified for six consecutive World Cup tournaments.

Translation, we won't be sneaking up on anybody, and any team that falls asleep on us does so at their peril.

The group play matches commence next June. Ought to be a fun few weeks.

We're Going To South Africa!

At least the US mens soccer team is.

They traveled to San Pedro Sula and beat Honduras 3-2 last night in a critical qualification match from the North and Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region to clinch a spot in next year's FIFA World Cup which will be held in South Africa.

Team USA had to work for it. After a scoreless first half, in the 47th minute the Hondurans jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the first of two goals by Julio Cesar De Leon. He scored again in the 78th minute to narrow the Catrachos deficit to 3-2.

Team USA erased the deficit by scoring 3 consecutive goals to take a 3-1 lead in the match. In the 55th minute Conor Casey scored the first of his two goals and added his second one in the 66th minute Team USA captain Landon Donovan added another in the 71st minute.

Honduras kept coming at them. They were 8-0 at home in qualifying and had been undefeated in 17 games at San Pedro Sula since June 2003.

They had a bicycle kick by Mauricio Sabillon in the 82nd minute that would have tied the match sail over the crossbar. Another golden opportunity in the 87th minute to tie the game on a Carlos Pavon penalty kick, but it sailed over the crossbar.

“We’re very proud,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “We understand the responsibility we have every time we step on the field for our fans, for our country.”

This is the sixth straight time the USA Mens team has qualified for the World Cup, but unlike our women, have no championships to show for it. They are eager for the opportunity to atone for the disappointing 2006 World Cup showing in Germany and show the world that our men can play quality football.

She Thought She Was Safe

South Africa is considered a safe haven on the African continent for other GLBT people persecuted in their homelands and because its constitution specifically bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Most of the time, that's the case, but here's the tragic story of Daisy, a transwoman who escaped Zimbabwe with her accepting mother only to die a violent death in South Africa simply for daring to be herself.