World Cup 2010 Teams Have Been Chosen

African Qualifying Nations: Algeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa

Asian Qualifying Nations: Australia, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Japan

Oceanic Qualifying Nations: New Zealand

European Qualifying Nations: Denmark, France, Greece, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain

North/Central Americas Qualifying Nations: Honduras, United States, Mexico

South American Qualifying Nations: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay

I'm totally stoked for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Soccer, Futbol, Football, whatever you'd like to call it, is truly the world's sport. And the World Cup is pretty much the only single sport tournament that truly names a world champion. The "World Series" is less of an international competition for baseball than it's little league counterpart is. The Superbowl crowns a "world champion" for American football, but let's face it, NFL is less international than even MLB, NHL, or the NBA who include Canadian teams. At least NHL and NBA aren't so presumptuous as to crown world champions with the Stanley Cup or Larry O'Brien trohpies. They know there are teams in Russia or Greece who could probably stack up to some teams in our leagues in the US.

The World Cup is truly the biggest international, single-sport event. In terms of national fervor and passion, it might even rival the Olympics. Teams from around the world compete through qualifying stages for years just to make it into the 32-team field. Those 32 teams enter group stages, then elimination rounds in a tournament style to attain the FIFA World Cup trophy. This is the first time that the Cup will be contested on African soil, in cities around South Africa.
Every continent is represented at the World Cup as follows: Africa has 53 teams competing for five spots. Asia has 43 teams competing for four spots and sharing a fifth with a potential Oceania entrant (i.e. New Zealand). Europe has 53 teams fighting for 13 places in the tourney. North and Central America, combined with Carribean nations, get three spots and split a 4th with South America who gets four of their own. And is tradition, the host country gets an automatic slot in the tournament.

I truly believe the World Cup is a sporting event that one needs to experience before he or she dies. It's definitely on my bucket list and it being in the US doesn't count. I want to go some place far away like Brazil or South Africa and just LIVE football for a couple weeks. I the the experience would be unforgetable, even if us Americans don't really know what we're doing around the pitch.