Gooooooooooooooooooooooal

World Cup Madness begins anew on Friday, one month of soccer fans living and dying with their favourite teams. As Germany takes centre stage and hosts the world.

For North American’s it’s a bit of a strange fable this Word Cup Mania, the beautiful game as it’s called, hasn’t really captured the imagination of the North American sports fan quite the same way it does in the rest of the world. In a recent Canadian survey, hockey was by far Canada’s number one sport, followed closely by football but not this round ball version that holds the rest of the world in awe, instead Canadian football still holds a place in our hearts.

Yet for the next month, even old fashioned Canadians (and those transplanted from lands afar) will be closely tuned to not one but two sports networks hoping the catch the latest news of their heroes on either TSN or Rogers Sportsnet. But they won’t be watching for a Canadian team tempting the soccer Gods for a Golden goal or an unexpected upset, Canada long ago failed to qualify for the thirty two team tournament about to launch in Germany. The Canadians can only sit back and watch as Mexico and the United States represent our corner of the Soccer Empire.

Instead, Canadians who probably only know of cities like Lisbon, Milan, Barcelona, Zagreb, Quito or Yamoussoukro as mere rumours of their parent’s pasts, will suddenly don the colours of their ancient lands and cheer on the “home” side as if they’ve been following them all along.

Certain parts of any Canadian city will all of a sudden resemble any village in any country of the world, as Canadians abandon their red and white calling for the ancient siren song of a land they may never have visited. Such is the power of the World Cup.

There will be more than a few upsets over the next month of madness, some teams will have failed their land so terribly they may be afraid to go home. In tournaments past, losing squads returned home to angry mobs at airports and in some cases a much worse reception. Think of Canada’s hockey loss at the Olympics and magnify it one hundred fold, such is the pressure that thirty two teams face as they begin their battles on Friday.

It’s perhaps one of the most remarkable tournaments in Sport, the Olympics a mere fashion show compared to the high drama involved in a penalty shoot out that sends one team back home without the trophy. Thirty two teams qualified over the last three years for the right to compete, teams from each of the many federations that make up the world Football community under FIFA. They have traveled a long and torturous route to earn the right to be one of the thirty two of Germany 2006.

The World Cup is steeped in remarkable history, Golden Goals, stunning upsets and complete domination by football machines. Some countries attend time and time again always on the verge of winning it all, others get their one chance at glory and disappear, never to be seen from again.

Losses by favorites can cause hand wringing at Football Associations for years on end. You want pressure, try being Sven Goran Eriksson, the coach of England, his team yet to prove anything other than being fodder for the merciless English tabloids, every player and coach move is watched with a sharp eye, every stumble duly recorded and obsessed over for days, months and years.

We like to think of hockey as our religion and rightfully so, it’s truly an all encompassing ritual for many Canadians. But if our love of hockey is that of religion, on the world stage it’s more of a casual prayer meeting, compared to the High Mass of the World Cup.

The next month of the beautiful game will be played as though a higher being has dictated a mandatory observance, work will come to a complete stop in some nations, street festivals will succeed or fail based on the success of the home side. But one thing is certain, for probably close to 99% of the world, the World Cup is by far the biggest show on earth, it kicks off in a few short hours and until July 9th, Germany will be the centre of the World!

Now I don’t pretend to be anything of an expert on World Football, but for the fun of it here are my picks for the advancing 16 in the first round of Germany 2006.

GROUP A

GERMANY
POLAND

GROUP B

ENGLAND
SWEDEN

GROUP C

ARGENTINA
COTE DE I’VOIRE

GROUP D

PORTUGAL
MEXICO

GROUP E

ITALY
CZECH REPUBLIC

GROUP F

BRAZIL
CROATIA

GROUP G

FRANCE
KOREA

GROUP H

SPAIN
UKRAINE

The first stage comes to an end on June 23rd, we shall see how wise I am then. Until that time, I’ll be busy responding to the hate mail from overzealous fans who have taken offence at my passing over their squad for advancement.