2010 World Cup Draw and the Group of Death

The 2010 World Cup draw was two days ago and I watched it for the first time live on Swiss TV; I am a big soccer fan and it was exciting to see the world gasp waiting for the final draw in Cape Town.

world cup draw 2010 groups michele roohani

There is as usual a group of death:

Group G
Brazil
North Korea
Ivory Coast
Portugal

where 3 of the 4 teams are known to have formidable soccer players.

These are my picks for the first round and yes I am brave enough to put my name on it!

world cup 2010 draw and michele roohani picks

The five time champion, Brazil, faces Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea in this very strong group G.

One of my most popular blog posts has been  “Gerd Muller, where are you?” and I labored over these images of my favorite childhood soccer players like Muller himself:

gerd muller michele roohani world cup 2010 draw

and the prince, Beckenbauer, then and now:

franz beckenbauer michele roohani 2010 world cup

“I don’t understand/like baseball and I tolerate American football only when my alma mater, USC, is playing but soccer stays close to my heart…There is a hierarchy of course like in any sport: we have princes and kings, Brazilian Gods and black pearls and panthers,  even a black spider (the Russian Yashin)!

There is  hand of God (Maradona) and real God (Pele):”

pele 2010 world cup michele roohani

Jairzinho,

jairzinho micheleroohani 1020 world cup

George Best,

george best micheleroohani 2010 world cup

the Charlton brothers,

the charlton brothers world cup 2010 michele roohani

Eusebio,

eusebio world cup 2010 soccer mcihele roohani

and last but not least, Michel Platini,

michel platini world cup 2010 micheleroohani

who would certainly give a red card to Thierry Henry after his handball disqualified the stunned Irish team at the qualifier match for the World cup  which would be from June 11th through July 11th in South Africa.

Thierry Henry handball world cup 2010 mcihele roohani

To see my favorite post, “Gerd Muller, where are you?”, go here.

To see the full schedule on FIFA’s site go here.