Friday's Daily: The Who

With J Hutcherson -- I'm going to go ahead and assume I speak for the lot of us as we continue the countdown to the 2010 World Cup Draw. Let's get at it, regardless of who the ping-pong balls throw the USA's way. It's time to start the focused obsessing. The months where we all act like advanced scouts trying to tease out what this team needs.

What they need first are names for the the other three teams in their group. Once that's done, we can turn to the important work of finding very good reasons why the US gets through. Same as last time when it didn't work out, and the time before that when it did.

The thing about all that talk about a soccer nation is that it requires that nation's National Team stepping up and making a difference at World Cup level. Everything else is just that, everything else. The game builds to this moment in a way particular to a quadrennial tournament.

Show the club game all the respect in the World, but they can start recouping their losses within months. For National Team soccer, that process takes years. This is where we find out what really translates.

For the United States, that hard road of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying is relative to scale. Every team in CONCACAF knows where the next level of competition is, along with what needs to happen to do more than simply get there.

Consider the obsessing the US fans and media have done since business picked up with the release of the seeding criteria on Wednesday, and imagine what that's like for Mexico and Honduras. You have to think at least one of the three is in for some quick hit bad news and a lot of rationalization to get their hope back after Friday.

It's not just the United States. It's all involved. Brazil knows what happened to France in the group stage of the '02 Cup. Holland is probably still working out the shock that went with FIFA choosing one rankings period to determine seeding. Argentina realizes the rest of the World isn't sweating them in the same way as before.

Every other team in the tournament is trying to avoid those monster groups France and Portugal will likely create. That includes France and Portugal, both of whom are hoping they draw South Africa.

What we have is all to play for in the best sense. There's not a team in this tournament that can take an easy route to the later stages for granted. All of them could benefit from the draw. All involved know that. Let's get at it.

Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves.  Please, tell me all about it.