A Geeks Guide to Sports: The Confederations Cup

What's a confederation? Excellent question, a confederation is like a continental group that is made up of the countries' soccer teams. In most places they share the same boundaries as the continent.

A few notable exceptions are:

Russia is a part of Europe's confederation UEFA, (so are Israel, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. I would could all of these as Asia, but there is a reason. )

Australia plays in the AFC, Asia's confederation (they moved after 2006)

Now that you know what a Confederation is what's the Confederations Cup? This is the tournament that is a dry run for the World Cup. It is held a year before the World Cup in the same country, and in the same stadiums (stadia if your a Roman).

It is between the champions of all 6 confederations plus the host of the next World Cup and the champion of the last World Cup. Meaning that Brazil and Spain are already know they'll be there and by noon our time (Central time) Asia's (AFC's) representative will be picked, and  North and South America (CONCACAF and CONMEBOL respectively) will have their representatives' picked by summer. Africa (CAF), Europe (UEFA), and Oceania (OFC) will be holding their championship tournaments in 2012.

If Spain was to win the UEFA championship or Brazil the CONMEBOL championship the 2nd place team would get to come as well.

But the real reason I like this tournament is that when America gets in, we scare teams. In 2009 we got passed the group stage and knocked out Spain (their first loss since 2006), we then led Brazil 2-0 at half time. We later lost 3-2, but we took on the world and nearly succeeded.

UPDATE: Japan won the Asian Cup. So now we know 3 of the contenders.