Hello Celebritys

The United States vs. Ghana match on Saturday afternoon set World Cup viewing records here in the United States. Unfortunately, there won’t be another once since the Stars and Stripes were eliminated by Ghana 2-1.

WashingtonPost.com

JOHANNESBURG -- The United States' 2-1 loss to Ghana in extra time, which eliminated the Americans from the tournament in South Africa, was the most-watched men's World Cup game ever in this country.

The Nielsen Co. said Saturday afternoon's game was seen by an estimated 14.9 million viewers on ABC. An additional 4.5 million people watched on the Spanish-language Univision.

Wow, could Saturday have been a worse sports day? Two teams I root for, both facing elimination, and both of them end up losing.

The United States men’s soccer team was sent packing from the World Cup by Ghana. I know the team is the king of comebacks, but come on! You allow an early goal in the first half and an early goal to begin extra time? You can’t keep doing that!! I still don’t know why Robbie Findley started the game. He hasn’t been productive at all, and the team played better without him. I was also disappointed to see Edu start the game on the bench. Oh well I guess. Time to start preparing for 2014.

At the same time the United States were getting beat, my TCU Horned Frogs were dismissed from the College World Series by UCLA. The team made a great run, but it’s disappointing to see them come up short. I don’t like baseball, and this is my first time to watch multiple college baseball games in a season, so I am not going to sit here and front like I have been following them all season, but I enjoyed watching the team play over the last few weeks.

The bad part about all of this is that July is a terrible sports month and once the World Cup is over all we are going to be left with is Major League Baseball. I wish it could have ended better for both teams because it sure left a bitter taste in my mouth.

FIFA can’t erase the injustice that happened to the U.S. Soccer team last Friday against Slovenia, but at least Koman Coulibaly won’t be around to screw over another country.

Yahoo Sports

Controversial referee Koman Coulibaly was left off FIFA’s list for the next batch of World Cup matches following the error that cost the United States a victory against Slovenia.

Yahoo! Sports revealed on Friday that Coulibaly was “highly unlikely” to take any further part in the tournament after being given a poor evaluation by assessors following his decision to disallow Maurice Edu’s 86th-minute goal. FIFA confirmed yesterday that Coulibaly will not play any part in Tuesday or Wednesday’s matches, which will include Team USA’s critical Group C finale against Algeria.

Obviously this doesn’t erase the fact that a careless referee cost the United States three points, but I am glad to see that FIFA is taking the appropriate measures to make sure they have the best refs possible for every match. Koman Coulibaly is not one of the best referees so he should not be able to participate any further.

I think I am almost over the United States getting hosed by the referee in yesterdays match against Slovenia. The good thing is England tied Algeria which left the group wide open for the taking. Here the possible scenarios for the final set of games in group C.

USA advances with…

A) Win vs Algeria on Wednesday
B) Tie and Slovenia-England tie IF England does not outscore USA by 2+ goals
C) Tie and England loss

Slovenia advances with...

A) Win/tie vs England
B) Loss AND USA tie vs Algeria
C) Loss and Algeria win as long as Algeria doesn’t make up tiebreakers.

England advances with...

A) Win vs Slovenia
B) Tie AND USA-Algeria tie AND outscore USA by 3 goals

Algeria advances with...

I dont have time to write a long posting, but I wanted to get my prediction in before game time. I am going with a 2-2 draw. Lets see...USA!!USA!!USAAAAA!!!!

As I continue to try and get you hyped for the 2010 World Cup, I want to advise you that you are about to be engulfed by soccer whether you want to or not. ESPN is paying $100 million for the rights to two World Cups and two Women’s World Cups through 2014, so you can expect the coverage to be deep!

NY Times.com

Among ESPN (44 games), ESPN2 (10 games) and ABC (10 games), all 64 games will be shown live; all will be available in high definition, and all will be streamed on ESPN3.com. Twenty-five games will be carried in 3-D.

That sentence basically sums it up, World Cup soccer is going to be all over the place and I can’t wait. According to EPLTalk.com, “ESPN has lined up 166 hours of re-aired World Cup matches that will be shown on ESPN Classic and ESPN2. All 64 games will be re-aired generally between 6pm to midnight ET each day. In addition to all of the World Cup games and re-aired games, expect to see a gigantic amount of World Cup features, news, documentaries and analysis on the ESPN family of networks.” It doesn’t mention it in the EPLTalk posting but I also know some of the SportsCenter’s and World Cup programming will originate live from South Africa.

If you are stuck at work and can’t catch the games on TV, you can watch all the games aired on ESPN and ESPN2 on ESPN3.com. The 10 games that will be aired on ABC won’t be available on ESPN3.com.

Wait, there’s more…TV and internet won’t be your only options. The World Cup games will also be available on the radio. All of the World Cup games will be broadcast on National ESPN Radio, and select games will be aired by your local ESPN Radio affiliate. I know the ESPN Radio station in Dallas will be broadcasting all of the United States and Mexico games along with a few select others.

If after reading all of that you don’t understand the magnitude or importance of the World Cup, I guess you will never get it. It is the world’s biggest sporting event and is important to so many countries around the world. It all gets started Friday morning with South Africa vs. Mexico on ESPN. If you would like to see the entire World Cup TV Schedule Go Here.

As you should know by now the 2010 World Cup gets underway Friday morning from South Africa. The United States kicks off their campaign on Saturday afternoon versus England, and fans of the U.S. have high hopes for the team this time around. The U.S. has the potential to have a solid showing in this year’s World Cup, but in my opinion their success will depend on three players.

Tim Howard, Goalkeeper- Howard had a solid season in goal for Everton in the EPL last season keeping a clean sheet in over a quarter of his appearances and managing a very solid 70% save to shots ratio. Howard was good for the U.S. last summer in the Confederations Cup and they will need him to be even better this summer if the United States has any hopes of making a run. An in form Tim Howard could carry the United States a long way.

Clint Dempsey, Winger/Forward- The native Texas is arguably the United States most consistent goal scorer behind Landon Donovan. Dempsey has been the second leading scorer for the U.S. behind Donovan for the last four years and netted three big goals in last summer’s Confederations Cup. Dempsey will play out on the wing but watch for him to creep in toward the box for more goal scoring chances.

Jozy Altidore, Striker- Altidore is one of my players to watch in the World Cup this year and I am not backing off of that. I think the U.S. will need the 20 year old, New Jersey native to perform well and create some goal scoring opportunities. Jozy has the chance on the biggest stage to show the world what he’s got.

Obviously the whole team is important, and I am not trying to disrespect Donovan, Onyewu, or any of the others and their skills, but I believe these three will be the key for the United States in the World Cup. It all gets underway Saturday afternoon at 1:30 PM Central Time on ABC.