At the Copa, Copa America!

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO: James great 1990's CD "Laid". Anybody know if they still do music?

WHAT I'M READING: Just started "God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens

WHAT I'M WATCHING: Finished UFC Ultimate Fighter 5 Finale. Got some Bill Moyers to view, and starting tomorrow is the Copa America on GolTV. More below.

Welcome to below.

Copa America 2007 starts tomorrow, going through July 15th. Last summer it was every game of the World Cup on the Disney networks, this summer it's every game of the Copa America on GolTV, and next summer it's every game of Euro 2008 on the Disney networks. It's good to be a football fan in America.

As always, I'll toss out my predictions. As always, they'll be about 50% correct. Here it goes, starting with the group stages.

GROUP A:
1. Uruguay
2. Venezuela
3. Peru
4. Bolivia

GROUP B:
1. Brazil
2. Ecuador
3. Mexico
4. Chile

GROUP C:
1. Argentina
2. Paraguay
3. Colombia
4. United States of America

We're taking a young squad. It'll be great experience for the guys to prepare for World Cup qualifying, which begins next summer and revs up in 2009, and should help make us a force at World Cup 2010. But I can't see that lineup getting enough points to advance from a tough, tough group.

QUARTER-FINAL:
1. Uruguay v. Colombia
2. Mexico v. Ecuador
3. Brazil v. Paraguay
4. Argentina v. Venezuela

SEMI-FINAL
1. Uruguay v. Ecuador
2. Brazil v. Argentina

THIRD PLACE GAME
1. Brazil over Ecuador

FINAL
1. Argentina over Uruguay

Argentina (don't cry for me) are taking a very loaded lineup, and have some great young talent to show. Messi is on top of the world right now.

It should be awesome. My first Copa America, as it's usually not shown anywhere but PPV. South American football is still very foreign to me, so I'm looking forward to learning while I enjoy.

GolTV is showing all 26 games live, so check the local listings.

DIRECT KICK CHALLENGE:
For period ending June 24th

ABC-1
ESPN2-10
FSC-11
DK-24

So that's 24 games at $79 for the season. Or, $3.29 per game. What a bargain!

Be Seeing You.