Lionel Messi is only 22,  but he's been the best player in the world for a while. No one else can dribble like him, and when surrounded by great teammates, he makes the most of them. His award is well deserved as his team won 6 trophies in 2009.

Here's a touching tribute to him...

And this one is more rocking...

For the first time, FIFA is presenting an award for goal of the year. You can view and vote here.

I remember watching Grafite's goal against Bayern Munich from my couch, and standing up and shouting when I saw it live. Then I fell to my knees during the replay and made a few other noises to show my approval.

My second favorite of the group is Atar's bicycle kick in the Israeli league. It's just a pure hit from 18 yards out and it makes you remember why the sport is called the beautiful game.

ESPN has a printable bracket and contest here.

Group A - This is a tough group for Mexico. I love it. I hope South Africa can pound them in the first match and France can finish the job. I don't care who advances (although the tournament is always more fun if the host moves on) as long as Mexico doesn't.
-South Africa
-Mexico
-Uruguay
-France

Group B - This is easy for Argentina. The other three teams must all feel that they have strong chances for advancement.  I give the edge to Nigeria since the tournament is in Africa.
-Argentina
-Nigeria
-South Korea
-Greece

Group C - England is second on my list of teams I hate after Mexico. I hate Mexico's players and fans, but I only hate England's fans. They're cocky and obnoxious. Our players vs England's players have a slight disadvantage, but our coach vs England's coach is a HUGE disadvantage. Fortunately we still have to play the game to see who will win. The other two teams should not beat the USA or England.

BTW, if you're patriotic like me,  no eating English muffins, drinking English tea, or speaking English in 2010. I speak American.

-England
-USA
-Algeria
-Slovenia

Group D - This is a tougher group than one would gather from first glance. If Germany gets a slow start, they have very tough matches against Serbia and Ghana. Neither of those teams are a pushover. Australia's team is competent and will definititely be wells supported. Ultimately, I still have to think Die Manshafft will win the group with Ghana advancing as well.

-Germany
-Australia
-Serbia
-Ghana

Group E - The Dutch easily qualified for the World Cup, going 8-0, scoring 17 goals and giving up 2. They have to favorites to advance to the semi-finals. The rest of the squads are pretty even, but Denmark is probably the strongest. The Danes always play major tournaments with discipline and a fight that often sees them advance to knock-out rounds. Cameroon matches will be fun, as they have a lot to prove on the African continent.
-Netherlands
-Denmark
-Japan
-Cameroon

Group F - Italy traditionally starts big tournaments with stumbles in the first round, so it's great for them that they got the easiest group in the tournament. Paraguay has a great team right now and should be able to put New Zealand and Slovakia down.
-Italy
-Paraguay
-New Zealand
-Slovakia

Group G - This is clearly the group of death. Brasil are favorites to win the tournament. Portugal always has great players but don't always have chemistry. Cote d'Ivoire  is the best African team. N. Korea is a freaky good unknown team. Brasil will advance, and Ivory Coast will get enough done to proceed as well. I don't think Portugal can  get it together by June.
-Brasil
-North Korea
-Ivory Coast
-Portugal

Group H - Spain should continue to be amazing and advance easily. They have great records in the first rounds of major tournaments, almost never stumbling. If the Swiss can bore Honduras and Chile enough to lull out some victories, they'll advance. Chile could challenge them. Advancement for those two will probably come down to goal differential against Honduras.
-Spain
-Switzerland
-Honduras
-Chile

After this weekend, all my teams are done. I don't have anyone to yell at.

My U-12 girls didn't make the Burbank playoffs, despite making big improvements over the course of the season.

My U-14 girls didn't make the Burbank playoffs, despite making big improvements over the course of the season.

My LA Galaxy didn't win the MLS Cup in Seattle yesterday.

I made the trip all the way to Seattle. It was my first time in the Pacific Northwest, and I was greeted by the typical weather of the region. The match was by far the coldest soccer game I've ever been to.

In the afternoon I was smiling, with my fellow Galaxy fans. I think this beer was a local Seattle brew called Mac and Jack. It was pretty tasty. I was still smiling.

Fellow LA fan Ben from Switzerland made the trip from Bern. He brought me some chocolate and candy. This was also one of the last times I smiled during the day.

Eventually the sun broke around 3:30. L.A. fans mistook that as a sign. You can see the Space Needle.

Here I am smiling in the stadium, about 90 minutes before kickoff. Qwest Stadium is very impressive and a great venue for sport. Seattle fans hate Los Angeles sports just like everyone else.

Here's my last smile in the stadium, as shown to the entire world via ESPN. My phone went wild after these shots.

The match was fine for a while. Then it turned into a nightmare. I don't want to talk about the match. Afterwards I wandered downtown Seattle and got some Pho. Then it was off to the airport to go home.

Yesterday, the World Cup field was finalized. There were 6 play-off games that were all pretty exciting. My favorite was Algeria sending Egypt home. I'm also glad that Ireland were eliminated on such a controversial goal.  I've never liked them. I'm happy the Hand of Frog (or some call it the Hand of Gaul) knocked them out.

Here are the 32 teams that will compete.

UEFA -Europe - Denmark, England, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, France, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Greece,  Slovenia, Portugal, Germany
CONMEBOL - South America - Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay
CONCACAF - North America - USA, Mexico, Honduras
CAF - Africa - Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria Host - South Africa.
AFC - Asia - Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
Oceania - New Zealand

The World Cup starts in mid-June, but right now, Brasil and Spain are clear favorites. World Cups outside of Europe tend to be riddled with the most upsets, and I expect at least one African team to get pretty far. My confidence in the Yanks is pretty low. Our roster is thin, and we are not clicking at all.

Climbing the Ladder has a great writeup on the elimination of teams  ranked 33 - 208. The first teams were eliminated in March of 2007. Qualification is a grueling marathon.

My voice is officially gone. I literally can't speak at the moment. I'm going to MLS Cup in Seattle next weekend. Nah Nah Nah Nah NAHNAH!

When you watch the USA x Costa Rica match tonight, stand up for the 9th minute for Charlie.

He was going to bring it for the USA in next year's World Cup. I was going to buy his jersey. Now he's got a year of recovery after a horrible car accident.

Back in my prime, there was one method of scoring I never mastered, the heel-flick. I pulled the move off in training many times, but in matches I made a fool of myself by whiffing on multiple occassions.  I really want to score on a heel flick in a meaningful match because it's just so cool.

This week in the Champions League, three goals were scored on heel flicks. This is incredible because there can be entire seasons in which a league doesn't have a heel flick goal. It's a rare move that most players aren't ballsy enough to try if they're that close to goal.

Falcao of Porto scored this one against Athletico Madrid. The difficult part of this one is that he had to add his own power to the shot, where normally the shot is more of a deflection.

Tihenen's for Zurich was by far the most beautiful. He hits it in the air directly off a corner kick. For Milan, there's no way to expect that or defend it. This is one of the best I've ever seen.

Genius Russian Andrei Arshavin had a great one against Olympiacos. Review has shown the goal was technically offsides, but still, Arshavin had to do it on the run and at an angle. Very classy.