World Cup!

Korea beat Greece last night 2:0 and the US and England drew at 1:1.  I'm not sure how tie breakers work, since I'm pretty new to this whole tournament.  Tonight Algeria plays Slovenia and then Serbia plays Ghana.  Korea plays Argentina on the 17th, the US plays Slovenia on the 18th and England will go against Algeria on the 19th.

If you're like many Americans (including us!) you might not know much about this sporting event.  So, here's a starter kit:

• It's officially called the FIFA World Cup and is contested by 32 men's teams, each representing their home nation.

• Like the Olympics, it's held every four years, with the intermediary three years devoted to qualifying matches.

• Brazil holds the record with 5 wins (there have been 18 tournaments).  Italy is the current champion.

•  It is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world (715.1 million people watched the final game in 2006).  

•  It's in South Africa this year and it will be in Brazil in 2014.  South Africa is the first African nation to host the event.  The host is chosen by vote of the FIFA Executive Committee.  Each association puts in a bid and is then visited to ensure their nation could support the event and meet the requirements.

• The trophy is not a permanent award.  It is passed on from each champion to the next.

• There are two stages in the final tournament, the group stage and the knockout stage.  The group stage consists of teams completing in eight groups (four teams each).  Each group plays a round-robin tournament and the top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.

• From what I can tell (every "expert" has their own opinion), the teams to watch are: England, Spain, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands.

 Now you're fully prepped to watch the madness happen.  Good night!