Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls. The moment you've all been waiting for is finally here... the Confederation Cup, bastard cousin of the World Cup, is upon us.
The Most Exciting, Fantastic Cup Thing Ever
This less attractive, less popular international men's football competition is often used as a trial run for the World Cup's host country. And thank god for that. Because it also serves as a tasty morsel for us soccer starved fans who can only handle one summer without an international tournament every four years. If
Johnny Nic is writing a whole piece about it, you know it's going to be good.
This year it is Russia who will gladly take the opportunity for a competitive international game as they attempt to win the World Cup without anything approaching a run of form. The last time Russia were touted as outside favourites for a tournament was at Euro 2012 when Andrei Arshavin was at the height of his powers. After hammering the Czech Republic 4-1, they managed to nose dive with a 1-1 draw to co-hosts Poland and crashed out with a 1-0 loss to Greece.
Gentlemen, Start your Engines
This year, the Sbornaya managed a historical victory over football giants New Zealand, the Oceania champions, with
a 2-0 scoreline. Elsewhere Chile, South American champions, eased past the African champions Cameroon
by the same scoreline. With European champions Portugal failing to beat the American champions Mexico, all eyes will be on the mighty Asian champions (Australia) facing the underdogs and current World Cup holders, Germany.
Hold Onto Your Hats...
OK so this hype is being met with all the sarcasm that it is rightly due but it can't be argued that we won't tune into watch the Confederations Cup games. After all, the greatest players in the world are still going to attend, even if Messi's Argentina won't be there and
Ronaldo's mind might be elsewhere. Ladies and gents, a cup will still be presented at the end of this tournament and by God I'll be there to witness it, even if said cup is being raised by Chile's captain and Manchester City's third choice goalkeeper. We can only live in hope.
