Not much of interest is happening in the soccer world during these last few days before the World Cup. Everyone is in Germany quietly training, or resting as the case may be.

England’s Wayne Rooney has reportedly been hitting bicycle kicks in training. I’ll still be shocked to see him contribute much even if England creep deep into the tournament. I broke my foot when I was about his age, and I’m still waiting to achieve match fitness 20 odd years later.

The new rumor is that England manager Sven Goren Erickson will be headed to Real after the Cup. That must be a joke. Talk about a square peg being stuffed into a round hole. Although there are probably many hot Spanish secretaries–must be what he’s thinking.

Unfortunately, beloved Ipswich just filled their vacant coaching spot. It is the perfect peg, I suppose, if their only ambition is to struggle to stay in the Championship for the rest of my life. They just pulled long-time fan favorite Jim Magilton off the pitch and stuck him in the spot. It was economical and the supporters won’t whinge–but the team won’t win, either.

Just read a piece in the local paper claiming Landon Donovan is the key to the US team. If that’s true, they might as well just pack it in now. It’s very hard for any American soccer player to be overrated–or rated at all– in this country, but Donovan clearly is. He is rested, though. One of the benefits of not having the talent to play in Europe.

As fans begin trickling in to Germany, their experiences over the next few days may be more interesting than what goes on in the various team camps. Non-whites have already been warned to stay out of certain areas of East Berlin. Several nations meeting up in the first round don’t care for each other much, and the fans will be drinking and singing in the same city. Doesn’t take much to set some of these old resentments seething again. We’ll have to see how the security forces handle things when tempers start flaring. So far, much of the security seems to be concentrated on keeping the US team from harm. Fair enough.

France, Switzerland, South Korea, Togo

This group is almost a carbon copy of Group F, with one top class team in with three vastly overmatched others that barely belong. The difference here is that the top team is the seemingly constantly underperforming French. This group is their chance to finally get it together. They are too good to keep pulling this nonsense in every tournament. Whichever minnow happens to swipe second in this group, is again of no importance.

By most accounts, France should have been the dominant team, at least in Europe, from the time they won the World Cup in 1998 and Euro 2000, until now. On paper, they’re excellent. Still. On the pitch they’ve been one long disappointment. Zidane is past his prime now, but they still have the incredible Thierry Henry. David Trezeguet will be there beside him if he ever happens to miss. They have the perfect thug in midfield in Patrick Viera. Their only real weakness is keeping the clown Fabian Barthez in goal–but he’s always good for a gaff–or a laugh, if you’re a neutral–to keep things light. They have enough firepower to win in spite of him. Surely, even they cannot manage to blow it this time. It would be difficult to imagine an easier draw. They probably don’t quite have the talent to win the Cup anymore, but they should advance fairly deep in this tournament.

You can flip a coin to try to pick who will capture second here. Switzerland gets my slight nod. A one-time powerhouse, it’s been a long while since they’ve been able to compete on the world stage. They now have a young and unproven team, but what I like most about them is their un-Swissness. These crazy kids actually brawled with Turkey in qualifying. They might be good enough for second here, no one really knows much about them, but you have to admire their spunk.

Like Japan, South Korea loses the advantage of playing the World Cup on their home soil this go round. Again like Japan they are an up and coming team that shows much promise for the future. But the future is still a ways off for now. If they win a match here, they should be fairly happy.

Togo might be the longest shot in the World Cup. They rely almost totally on Arsenal’s Emmanuel Adebayor, and he spends much of his time on the national team arguing with the coach or sulking. This doesn’t bode well for a team that would be bound to struggle mightily even if he was on his game.

This group was a gift to France whether they deserved one or not. Coming off a whole string of international disappointments, you have to think they’ll rouse themselves enough to walk through this first round as expected, for a change. Switzerland is an unknown entity, but seem to have enough to hold onto second. Even with Dick Advocaat at the helm of South Korea, they just aren’t ready for this kind of competition yet. Just a win anywhere by Togo would be a huge surprise. Give it to France in a walk. Second place, will win the honor to play one more game, then they‘re straight home as well.