Empower Me Photo

The FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa begins later this week. The Empower Me Photo Blog will be on hold until July due to travel to South Africa. I've been very fortunate to be able to attend World Cups in several countries including USA 1994, Japan / Korea 2002, Germany 2006 and now South Africa 2010. It is an amazing celebration.

Later this week, I will be posting an announcement regarding our current book project. It is very exciting and the Peer Review process has included many excellent authors and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. More on that soon and in the meantime, please see the post below to learn about South Africa 2010 and the world's game.

The World's Game
Many sports proclaim their champions as Campiones Del Mundo – Champions of the World. But there is only one world game –the game of FUTBOL – or as it is known in the USA & Australia – SOCCER. I’ve never known why American football is named Football – it is more properly suited for the term HANDBALL.

My beloved Pittsburgh Steelers have won the Super Bowl six times – more than any other team. And each time they celebrate as champions of the world. But how many countries play this so-called HANDBALL? Only seven that I was able to identify.

The Lakers and Celtics are battling for the NBA Championship. Soon many players will be heard basking in the glory of being quote/unquote the best in the world. I have no idea how many countries play basketball but it is likely several dozen. The USA is no longer an automatic to win Olympic Gold in basketball as many countries have quality sides. So why in world would these athletes feel as though they are the best in the world.

Baseball, Hockey, Boxing? All of these sports are played in many countries. But will someone please tell me how in the heck Major League Baseball gets to proclaim their championship the World Series? It boasts teams from only 2 countries.

Do you have any idea how many countries compete for Futbol’s Campione Del Mundo? 204! I’m not even sure that I could name half that many countries and I’ve traveled to most parts of the world.

Futbol is the world’s game and nothing unites and excites the sports planet like a World Cup. For one month every four years, billions of people rearrange their lives, play hooky and ignore their loved ones in order to watch twenty two men kick a ball in pursuit of a small golden statue and athletic immortality.

The World Cup is actually a two year tournament which included over 200 countries competing to play in South Africa 2010. There are 32 teams who qualified for the finals and they are split into eight pools of four teams each. The pool play round will eliminate half of the teams in the first two weeks before the knockout stages begin. Beyond Pool Play, lose once at this point and your world cup dreams are over as the tournament quickly gets reduced to the final match slated for Sunday July 11th.

The world’s largest sporting event will be held on African soil for the first time in the 80 year history of the FIFA World Cup. Only 7 countries have won the world cup with Brazil leading the honors a total of five times. The USA’s best achievement in this competition came in 1930 where they came in 3rd place. Twenty years later in Brazil, the USA shocked the world with a 1-0 victory over England – who many believed were the best team at that time.

The opening match has the host nation facing off against Mexico on Friday at 7am PT. The USA begins their campaign on Saturday in an exciting match up which has them paired against England. The other two teams in the USA pool include Algeria and Slovenia. And while those two countries may seem innocuous, the reality is that any team that has made it to the World Cup Finals has already earned their reputation as one of the best teams on the planet.

This is the ball that will be used in South Africa, called Jabulani – meaning celebration or happy. I wish that I had a vuvuzela to show you; the vuvuzela is a plastic horn that you will hear by the thousands over the next month.

Many people feel that the USA will never win a world cup – especially those with british accents. Well, I have news for them. The USA has already won twice as many world cups as the English. England won in 1966 (once) (and I’ve met Martyn Peters the English striker who made it happen); while the USA won the Women’s World Cup in both 1991 & 1999.

Getting back to the men, Spain is the number one ranked team in the world. As a country, Spain had won a record 15 consecutive matches and had tied Brazil’s previous record of 35 games without a defeat. That is until they ran into the USA in a Confederations Cup match last year.

Can the USA win the FIFA 2010 World Cup? I say YES. I was with the team in Seoul Korea in 2002 when they held on against Portugal 3-2. I was with them in Kaiserslautern, Germay 2006 when they battled Italy to a 1-1 draw. I think this team has a good feel heading into South Africa 2010. They were in South Africa last year for the Confederations Cup which allowed them to become familiar with the surroundings – and they did quite well in that tournament. South Africa is not the biggest country but it is not small either – about twice the size of Texas. The USA’s pool play matches are all in the same general area so their logistical headaches are minimal and they have been there for a few weeks getting acclimated to the altitude of the area.

Tim Howard is our starting Goalkeeper and the best in the world. The LA Galaxy’s Landon Donovan is Americas’ best player and he is primed to have an incredible world cup; and his strike partner from the LA Galaxy, Edson Buddle, is joining him and I like to think it was because of my sign on ESPN last month.

So paint your face, hoist your vuvuzela (that’s the noise makers that surely will be a signature of South Africa 2010, or just grab your trusty remote. But whatever you do, make sure that you don’t miss the opportunity to join the billions of futbol fans celebrating the true Campiones Del Mundo.