By Payton Brooks
South Africa is not exactly one of those places where people plan a vacation and, therefore, with the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament to take place in South Africa, a great deal is being done to help prepare for an onslaught of visitors to the area. World Cut Soccer is, on many levels, something like the Olympics and baseball's World Series rolled into one; teams from around the world are already counting down and competing with their eyes on the World Cup in 2010 and fans are already looking into learning more about places to stay and even driving rules in South Africa.
All of this - fans looking into lodging and travel, teams playing for a shot at making the tournament - is already taking place. Even with almost two years to go before the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament in South Africa, the official web site is documenting the way that teams are playing and that features a countdown to the event (with well over 600 days to go). So far, there are two hundred teams that have entered into the competition; two hundred teams that are aiming to be one of the thirty-one teams that will compete.
Teams from Spain, England, France, Germany and Italy are all competing as representatives of European nations. Africa has a total of fifty-three teams that are working their way through the preliminaries, with Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia, Swaziland, Togo and other nations participating. Asian nations that hope to be in thirty one teams who will compete for the 2010 World Cup Soccer title in South Africa include Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia. New Zealand and Fiji are both vying for a position from Oceania.
On the other side of the globe, teams from North and Central America as well as the nations of the Caribbean are competing and preparing for a spot in the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament in South Africa. So far, teams from the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Trinidad and Tobago and Honduras are leading the way. From South America, thus far, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay have taken the lead.
While it is far too soon to tell which nations will ultimately be among the thirty one spots in the 2010 World Cup tournament finals in South Africa, one thing is sure: each of the preliminary matches is grabbing the interest of soccer fans worldwide - all of whom are hoping that their nation or their favorite team will ultimately be represented. Photos of matches are available online, match details have been made available and these are just the first steps: the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will also offer live streaming coverage of the matches that are played; likewise, some preliminary matches will be aired live online.
The road to the 2010 World Cup Soccer tournament in South Africa is still long and winding, however that does nothing to slow down the ways in which players and fans have planned to travel it to reach their destination.
Payton Brooks is a senior sports writer at Sportsview. Read and rate more free articles like this one, create your own sports and challenge others at Sportsview, the biggest sports social network.
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