Charlie KleinI guess it may be a little too late to call this post a preview, considering the fact that the Cup has officially started after Iraq and host country South Africa drew nil nil in the opener. However none of the heavyweights have kicked a ball yet, so a preview is still in order.
For all of you non-football fanatics, here is a brief breakdown on how the Confederations Cup is constructed. The Cup is played every four years and is run by FIFA. It is comprised of eight teams, six of which are the national teams that have won their own confederation tournament. The confederations and their participant in this tournament are as follows: CAF (Egypt), CONMEBOL (Brasil), UEFA (Spain), AFC (Iraq), OFC (New Zealand), and CONCACAF (USA). The final two teams are the last world cup winner (Italy) and the host country (South Africa).
The national teams that have the most obvious chance to win the tournament are Brasil, Italy, and Spain. Brasil won the competition when it was last played in 2005. The times have certainly changed as the Selecao are not the world's supreme power like it was only six years ago. Italy, while having an underwhelming showing at Euro 2008, are still the defending World Champions and Spain impressed the footballing world with their European Championship last summer.
My pick to win the tournament is Italy. For some reason I get a sneaky suspicion that the the Italians have not taken the heaps of praise littered on Spain very well. After all, they almost knocked out Spain in the European Championships but were defied by a saintly performance from St. Iker (as they refer to him in Spain) in a penalty shootout. Even though Italy was criticized last summer for being too old to compete, most of the squad selection was to blame. With Donadoni gone and Marcello Lippi back in the fold as manager, I have every belief that Gianlugi Buffon & Co. possess the talent to win the tournament.
As an American, I am very interested to see how well the United States plays in this setting. The Americans have been playing pretty well, aside from their awful performance in Costa Rica. I am a big fan of goalkeeper Tim Howard and his work in the English Premier League. It will be interesting to see how well Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu fare against strong opposition. If anything the Confederations Cup for the United States will be a good test of how well they will do in a years time, provided that they qualify for the World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
All of the matches will be shown on either ESPN or ESPN2. Spain faces South Africa in about 20 minutes, so I have some football to watch. All this time I was lamenting the fact that there was no Euros or World Cup with which to placate my lust for football, but the Confederations Cup presents a valuable tease for the rapture of next summer. Enjoy it.
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