| This past February, Canada re-asserted its dominance on the ice with gold medals in mens and womens hockey at the Olympics, just a few months before Winnipegs Jonathan Toews captained the Chicago Blackhawks their first Stanley Cup in 49 years. Brian Dawkins Jersey . In the baseball world, B.C.s Justin Morneau is currently dominating the American League and leading first basemen in All-Star votes. On the hardcourt, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash has been a dominating force for years now with the Phoenix Suns. In other words, you can take your pick of Canadian heroes to cheer for in the North American sporting spectrum. But one sport in which our nation has not excelled just happens to be the most popular one in the world, the beautiful game: soccer, or as 98% of the rest of the world calls it, football. With the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicking off Friday in South Africa, Canada is unfortunately missing from the festivities once again. The only time the Great White North qualified for the World Cup was back in 1986, when they lost all three games without scoring a goal. Still, there are plenty of soccer fans in this country, and with Canada ranked 63rd in the world and once again absent from the action on the world stage, we thought wed ask: Who are you rooting for in the World Cup? Theres no shortage of Canucks with English stock. If youre driving anywhere in Torontos downtown, particularly around College St., youd better give yourself about an extra hour to get to your destination if Portugal, Brazil or defending champion Italy have a game, because their passionate fans take to the streets in droves (there are lots of Irish too, but they were denied a spot in the tournament because of a notorious French handball...just dont bring it up). In multicultural cities across the country, Canadians adorn their cars and their front porches with flags, proudly (and often loudly) voicing their support for their favourite team. On Thursday, soccer legend Pele echoed popular sentiment, calling Brazil and Spain the two best squads at the World Cup. Pele did acknowledge that it would be superb to see an underdog nation - particularly an African country - win it all, or at least get to the big game. "It would be fantastic to see Brazil playing an African team in the final," Pele told the Associated Press. Heres a list of teams in the tournament: Algeria, Argentina, Australia Brazil Côte dIvoireDenmarkCameroon, Chile England France Germany, Ghana, Greece Honduras Italy JapanMexico Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North KoreaParaguay, Portugal Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, South Africa (host), South Korea, SwitzerlandUnited States, Uruguay Whatever your cultural stripe in this diverse land, it has come to this. The time is here. A qualification process that began back in August of 2007, almost three years ago, has seen 32 teams make it to this historic World Cup, the first one ever held by an African nation. Its Your! Call. Who will you be cheering for at the 2010 FIFA World Cup starting on Friday, and why will you be cheering for them? Let us know below. Philadelphia Eagles Jersey Throwback . Ambassadors of Cute, Shizuka Fujioka (L), Yu Kimura, and Misako Aoki (R), pose during a news conference at Japans Foreign Ministry in Tokyo March 12, 2009. Inspired by the characters in Japans distinctive anime animated films and manga cartoon books, one of the new ambassadors dresses as a schoolgirl, another as a Victorian doll in voluminous frilly skirts. Replica Chris Cooley Jersey . Thomas Vanek scored four goals Saturday as the Buffalo Sabres snapped a nine-game losing streak against Ottawa with a 5-2 win on a night the Senators honoured Alfredsson for 1,000 career games. Authentic Jaguars Jersey . 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Madonna poses for photographers in London, in this Thursday Jan. 25, 2007 file photo. Preparations are under way for a return visit to Malawi by the pop star, who is adopting a child from the southern African country where her charity does work among its many AIDS orphans. Premier Chris Johnson Jersey . "Reluctantly, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to sort out this stalemate is for the owners and the league to answer the biggest sticking point: money," Sen. Jay Rockefeller wrote in a Washington Post opinion column on Friday.TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays have claimed right-hander Taylor Buchholz off waivers from the Colorado Rockies. The 28-year-old Buchholz was designated for assignment on Tuesday. He was 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in seven relief appearances with the Rockies. Buchholz started the season in the minors while recovering from elbow ligament repllacement surgery in 2009. Broncos Dawkins Jersey. . He has a career record of 19-21 with one save and a 4.42 ERA over four seasons with Houston and Colorado. The Blue Jays also moved righty Jesse Litsch to the 60-day disabled list on Thursday. He had season-ending hip surgery in early August and wont be ready until spring training. Aaron Rodgers Jersey. And the way theyre playing, it is a clearly reachable goal. Our No. 1 goal now is to finish second, and we want to play well moving into the playoffs, veteran defenceman Craig Rivet said Saturday as the Sabres prepared to face the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. ' ' ' |
