Mexico is emerging as one of the best

The excitement and success continues for the Mexican national soccer team after the team won its sixth Gold Cup title last weekend in Pasadena against the United States.

Today the team learned that FIFA has ranked Mexico No. 9 in the world.

The news is a significant accomplishment for Mexico because the achievement proves the dominance and incredible talent the Mexican national soccer team has developed.

Led by its raising superstar Javier "El Chicharito" Hernandez, who is becoming a world-class soccer player, Mexico has positioned themselves as one of the best soccer clubs in the world.

What that means is that Mexico is now ranked amongst the best teams who have won World Cups such as Spain, Brazil, Italy and Argentina.

The achievement of being one of the top 10 teams in the world shows how the Mexicans have made a jump from being a decent team to a hungry, young team full of amazing talent and stars playing in Europe like Hernandez with Manchester United and Giovanni Dos Santos, who is playing in Spain.

As long as the Mexicans continue to progress and develop its young stars than there is no doubt the chances for them to win its first World Cup in 2014 in Brazil is more than possible.

The Mexican national soccer team already has its world-class player, a outstanding cast of players surrounding Hernandez and a energetic coach who enjoys giving each guy a chance to use their talents to help the team win.

What Mexico needs, to be a dominate team and have a chance to win a World Cup in 2014, is another world-class player.

The closes player who comes to that is Dos Santos. The goal he made in the Gold Cup final against the Untied States was one of the ages and his skills resembled ones like the great, Lionel Messi, who is considered to be the greatest soccer player of today.

Dos Santos has came a long way since his first run with Mexico in the 2010 World Cup and he is only getting better.

If Mexico can have two deadly world-class strikers up front than who knows where this team can go and be come in 2014.

The team is excellent on defense and the defense is awesome at creating a chance for the midfielders to dribble the ball up front and create a lot of opportunities for the strikers.

Andres Guardado, Efrain Juarez, Pablo Barrera, and Aldo de Nigris are the other supporting cast members who are players becoming their own on the team and who are only going to get better and grow confidence after their performance in this year's Gold Cup.

Mexico has proven its dominates with the endless amount of ball possession it has in all of its games and the endless pouring of goals it gives its opponents, who later beg for mercy.

The recent achievement the Mexicans received from FIFA is only the beginning and once the 2014 World Cup comes--the world will witness the maturity and amazing talents the Mexicans have developed.

Youths play to become world star players

The U-17 World Cup is halfway to crowning a champion.

The second leg of the tournament is being played and potential champions are claiming their chips and are rolling for the cup.

Japan, Brazil, Germany, and the host, Mexico, are several countries with the best chances of claiming the title this summer.

Japan has been impressive as it wont its group and defeated Argentina, Jamaica and tied France. In its first match of the second round, Japan destroyed New Zealand, 6-0, as it now faces Brazil in the quarter-finals.

Brazil has always been a country with world-class soccer players and the young players representing its U-17 team is living up to the statement. Brazil defeated Denmark, Australia and Ecuador in the first match of the second round.

Germany, which is hosting the Women's World Cup, has been making some noise in the U-17 World Cup as the team went undefeated in its group and faces the United State June 30 in the first match of the second round.

Mexico also went undefeated in its group and faces Panama June 30. Mexico has been riding lots of momentum as the team is coming off a terrific match against Holland as the Mexicans won the match, 3-2, in the final seconds.

The four teams are on a collision course as the semi-finals roll around next week and the U-17 World Cup is heating up as it continues to go under the radar in the United States.

The future of soccer is playing each other in Mexico as young hopefuls of becoming world class players try to make a name for themselves.

USA robbed of a win

Today was the worst day for the FIFA World Cup.

The first match was a unexpected upset as Serbia defeated Germany 1-0.

The Germans were favorites in the match, but they could not get nothing to fall for them.

Not too long ago, the Germans defeated Australia easily in a 4-0 victory.

The second match was USA vs. Slovenia.

Slovenia was on a roll after they won their first match.

It was a difficult match for USA because they had to switch roles of being the underdogs in their first match against England, to being favorites in this match.

Slovenia scored two goals in the first half. USA allowed the pair of goals by poor defense.

As Slovenia relaxed with their two goal lead, the Americans stormed out of halftime and scored a pair of goals of their own.

As the match was tied with less than 20 minutes left in the game, the Americans scored again, but the official who was calling the match, called off the goal because he said an American player committed a foul during the play.

The Americans showed frustration and anger because after the replay was shown multiple times, no where did it show that an American committed a foul.

The Americans were basically screwed a goal and a win.

The third match of the day was England vs. Algeria.

It was a perfect opportunity for England to get a win and keep the Americans hopes of advancing out of group play low.

But the match finished in a 0-0 draw and neither England or USA could make progress in the group standings.

The Americans group is a weak and pathetic group. It does not have great teams and England has shown they can hardly score a goal. All four teams are not great and the two teams who advance from the group, will surely be knocked out in the first round of the final 16.

Group C standings: Slovenia has four points, England and USA both have two points and Algeria has one point.

Next matches for Group C: England vs. Slovenia on June 23 at 7 a.m. on ESPN 2. USA vs. Algeria on June 23 at 7 a.m. on ESPN.

Substitutions win the game for Mexico

The game of the day in the 2010 World Cup was the 2-0 Mexico win over France.

The two teams were playing with a lot on the line. Both teams were playing for a chance to keep their chance to advance from the group alive.

Yesterday Uruguay defeated South Africa easily, 3-0 and had first place spot in the group.

Either Mexico or France could join Uruguay with four points, but they also could have remained tied with a draw in today's match.

The first half was quite with a 0-0 tie going into half.

Mexico made a few substitutions after the half and it would turn out to be the best move from Mexico's coach Javier Aguirre.

The first sub, Javier Hernandez, scored on a open net after beating the defenders and going around France's goalkeeper.

France thought it was a offside, but the sideline officals called him onside and Hernandez continued on to finish the goal.

The second sub, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, scored the second goal for Mexico after one of the France defender's was caught slide tackling a Mexican player inside the goal box, and rewarding the Mexicans with a penalty.

The Mexicans are now tied with Uruguay with four points, and France is tied with South Africa with one point.

As long as Mexico and Uruguay can finish their match with a draw than both teams will move on into the final 16.

The scenario is easy, but the challenge for Mexico and Uruguay is to win the top spot in Group A, because neither team does not want to face Argentina (the top team in Group B) in the first match of the final 16.

(The winner of Group A faces the second place team in Group B and the winner of Group B faces the second place team in Group A. The same goes for Group C and Group D, Group E and Group F, Group G and Group H.)

Earlier in the morning, Argentina murdered South Korea in a 4-1 victory.

Argentina were clearly favorites to win Group B, and it was no surprised they easily defeated the Southern Korans.

The other match of Group B, Greece vs. Nigeria, was a exciting but it was it was not a good game.

Greece won the game 2-1.

Group A standings: Uruguay and Mexico with four points and France and South Africa with one point.

Group B standings: Argentina with six points, South Korea and Greece with three points and Nigeria with zero points.

Spain falls to Switzerland

Spain loses to Switzerland.

Something that no one thought would happen, but the unthinkable happen and it came true.

The favorites to win the 2010 World Cup opened up its run to the cup with a 1-0 loss to Switzerland.

Spain and Switzerland had a competitive first half as both held a 0-0 draw for the first half.

Seven minutes into the second half, Switzerland scored the only goal of the match when Gelson Fernandes put the ball into the net after a loose ball stood inches from the goal line, and Spain's goalkeeper feet away from recovering the ball.

Spain had multiple chances to even up the score and take the lead, but they could not convert against the strong defense and goalkeeping from Switzerland.

Switzerland's victory is the biggest upset thus far in the World Cup.

The other match of the group featured Chile and Honduras.

Chile controlled the entire game and had tons of chances to score.

Chile's only goal came at the 34 minute mark by Jean Beausejour.

All the groups have played a match each, and now it started back to Group A.

Host country, South Africa, got back on the field after splitting a 1-1 draw with Mexico.

The team played Uruguay, a team who also had a draw in its first match with France.

Uruguay beat South Africa easily 3-0.

Diego Forlan scored twice for Uruguay and Alvaro Pereira scored in the closing minutes of the match.

Group H current standings: Chile and Switzerland with three points and Honduras and Spain with no points.

Next matches for Group H: Chile vs. Switzerland on June 21 at 7 a.m. on ESPN. Honduras vs. Spain on June 21 at 11:30 a.m.

Italy is not the same 2006 champions

The 2006 FIFA World Cup Champions, Italy, kicked off its campaign to defend its title against Paraguay today.

The match finished in a 1-1 draw.

Paraguay had no fear against the older and slower Italy team as the two teams had a heated battle for the first 25 minutes of the match.

Paraguay scored first at the 39 minute mark when Antolin Alcaraz connected with a header while being bodied up by two Italian defenders in the air.

The team celebrated by dancing in a big circle, but got back into the match as they tried to defend the one goal lead.

The Italians tried to get back into the match, but kept being called offside.

The second half continued to be like the first half, but Italy kept pushing to even up the score.

The Italians got their chance at the 63 minute mark when Daniele De Rossi scored off a corner from a teammate.

Both teams kept their composer for the remainder of the match and they had to settle for a draw.

There were two other matches that were played before this match. Japan defeated Cameroon 1-0 and Netherlands defeated Denmark 2-0.

Current standings for Group E: Japan and Netherlands with three points each and Cameroon and Denmark with no points.

Next matches for Group E: Japan vs. Netherlands at 4:30 a.m. on June 19 on ESPN and Cameroon vs. Denmark at 11:30 a.m. on June 19 on ESPN.

Germany wins without a sweat

The World Cup is beginning to pick up some momentum after having three of its first five matches end in draws.

The most exciting game of today was the Germany and Australia match.

The match was the first lopsided match of the World Cup thus far, as Germany defeated Australia 4-0.

Australia was the underdogs coming into the match, and it did not take much to show that they were.

Germany took a early 2-0 in the first 30 minutes of the match and never looked to take their foot off the gas pedal.

Germany got two more goals in the second half to win the match.

Germany was questioned weather they were going to be able to compete at a high level without their star player, Michael Ballack, but they looked great in their first match of the 2010 World Cup.

Ballack sustained a torn ligaments in his right ankle back last month.

The other two matches of the day ended in 1-0 victories for Ghana and Slovenia.

The other two teams in the USA's and England's group, Slovenia and Algeria, played their first match a day after the exciting English and American match.

Slovenia won the match and are leading Group C, follow by England and USA with one point and Algeria with no points.

The win by Slovenia now puts pressure on USA because USA must win the match against Slovenia to keep their chances alive to advance from the group play.

Slovenia and USA play on June 18 at 7 a.m. The Americans were the underdogs in the mach against England, but are now favorites in the this match, and it puts pressure on the Americans to not get caught up in underestimating their opponent.

The other match was against Ghana and Serbia.

Ghana won the match 1-0, and are tied with Germany with three points in Group D.

Group D standings: Germany and Ghana with 3 points and Australia and Serbia with no points.

Next matches for Group D: Germany vs. Serbia on June 18 at 4:30 a.m. on ESPN. Australia vs. Ghana on June 19 at 7 a.m. on ESPN.

Argentina, South Korea wins first matches

Group B of the 2010 FIFA World Cup turned out to be more of a one sided match in its first day debut.

Rather than having draws like Group A, the teams in Group B showed that a team can win in the World Cup.

The first match which was at 4:30 a.m. (and I was able to get up to see a bit of) had South Korea facing off with Greece.

South Korea took a early 1-0 lead after Lee Jung Soo scored a goal off his head from a corner kick in the first seven minutes.

The Koreans maintained the one goal differential for the remainder of the half.

Seven minutes into the second half, the Koreans scored again.

This time the team had Park Ji Sung grab the 2-0 lead when he took away the ball from one of the Greece defenders and scored against the goal keeper with little pressure.

2-0 would be the fine result of the match, and South Korea grabbed three points.

The second match had Argentina vs. Nigeria.

Many people and including myself predicted a Argentina blow out.

Argentina has what most people would consider the best player in the world,Lionel Messi.

But it did not matter to the Nigerians, instead it was a surprisingly 1-0 victory in favor of Argentina.

The only goal of the match came in the first six minutes of the match when Gabriel Heinze scored off one of the Argentina's corner kicks.

Give Nigeria's goalkeeper a lot off credit. The guy was not scared to get his hands dirty, because he was diving and jumping all over the place to deflect all of what should been goals for Argentina.

This game could have been easily a 6-0 win for Argentina, but Nigeria was saved of the embarrassment by their goalkeeper.

Group B now standing: Argentina and South Korea with three points each and Greece and Nigeria with zero points.

Next matches in Group B: Argentina vs. South Korea at 4:30 a.m. and Greece vs. Nigeria at 7 a.m. Both games are on June 17.

I am going to pick Argentina to win this group, and with South Korea winning today, than I have them as the second team to come out of this group.

2010 FIFA World Cup starts with draws

The 2010 FIFA World Cup opening has came and gone with two fantastic matches that ended with draws.

The host country, South Africa, started the one month tournament with a fierce battle with Mexico.

Mexico controlled the first half by having 61 percent of the ball possession and having clean shots at goal over and over again, but they failed to get one shot into the back of the net.

With the scoree tied at zero, the momentum seemed to be shifting a little to the host team, but Mexico still looked like they were going to win the game.

The tie broke at the 55 minute mark when South Africa's Siphiwe Tshbalala scored off a fast break and over Mexico's undersized goal keeper.

With time increasingly fading away for the Mexicans, coach Javier Aguirre brought in fresh legs to keep the Mexicans competitive.

At the 79th minute, Mexico's Rafael Marquez tied up the game with a point blank shot at the goal.

There was not enough time for either team to break the 1-1 tie, and the game resulted in a draw.

The second game from Group A feature France and Uruguay, and it was the same result, but this time, a 0-0 draw.

Not many exciting moments from this game.

Both teams had a balance match and both played really well on the defensive end.

Uruguay was a man short for the last 15 minutes of the game after one of their players picked up a red card and resulted in a rejection.

(In soccer, when a player receives a red card: It means he or she is ejected from the game and their team is forced to play one player short. The player is then suspended for the team's following game, but is allowed to return after the one game suspension.)

With the the two games completed in draws; all four teams are tied at one point in Group A.

Next matches in the group are: Mexico vs. France on June 17 at 11:30 a.m. and South Africa vs. Uruguay on June 16 at 11:30 a.m. Both matches are on ESPN.

The World Cup matches will continue tomorrow with a triple header.

Group B starts its matches: South Korea vs. Greece at 4:30 a.m. (I don't think I will be able to watch this one. Yet again, I don't think it is worth getting up for.) Argentina vs. Nigeria 7 a.m. Both games are on ESPN.

But the most anticipated game for the Americans gets started between USA and England. The match will be on ABC at 11:30 a.m.