Challenge. Play. Earn

Instead of doing a year end recap of some sort – I’ve decided to look forward to the WORLD CUP! Next year’s FWC (FIFA World Cup) is in South Africa, and will be hosted by the cities of Johannesburg (Soccer City 94,900 capacity and Ellis Park Stadium 62,567 cap.), Durban (Mses Mabhida Stadium 70,000 cap.), Cape Town (Cape Town Stadium 69, 070 cap.), Pretoria (Loftus Versfeld Stadium 51,760 cap.), Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium 48,000 cap.), Bloemfontein (Free State Staduim 48,000 cap.), Polokwane (Peter Mokaba Stadium 46,000 cap.), Nelspruit (Mbomblea Stadium 43,500 cap.) and Rustenburg (Royal Bafokeng Stadium 42,000 cap.).  The mascot for next year’s tournament is named Zakumi which is a combination of the international abbreviation for South Africa (ZA) and ‘kumi’ meaning ‘ten’ in various African languages according to Wikipedia.

The match ball for the FWA is made by Adidas and named Jabulani, Zulu for ‘bringing joy to everyone’. You can tell Adidas really put a lot of thought into the making of the ball. Check out this awesome illustration from The Guardian. In addition to all the cool research and mechanical improvements, Adidas also referenced the number eleven a lot, it’s symbolic of the number of World Cups which Adidas has manufactured the match ball, the eleven official languages of South Africa, if you notice the picture of the ball below, there are 11 colors, one for each player on the pitch, additionally, the tournament will start on 11 June and end on 11 July.

The qualifying teams are; Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire (The Ivory Coast for you non-Francophones), Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Korea DPR (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea aka North Korea), Korea Republic, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Paraguay, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay and USA. Check out the Wikipedia page for an interesting map of qualifiers. Here’s a sweet match schedule from FIFA.

One odd thing about South Africa – like no one knows the entire national anthem, this episode of The World In Words from Public Radio International discusses beginning at 12:25. Their national anthem (click for mp3 version) has five languages (Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, English and Africaans).

I am looking forward to seeing how far Ghana goes this tournament, I really enjoyed watching them in 2006. Also of note we’re re-fighting the Revolutionary War this World Cup on Sat. June 12 in Johannesburg’s Ellis Park, this one’s for all the chips (and by chips I mean the Empire)!

USA Coach Bob Bradley’s reaction to England draw.

Free 32 man Quake Tournament starting the day after New Years! Sign up we know you have the time. To take a look at the great prizes click the pic!

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite video in our Tongal Commercial Contest!

Check out these Flüd watches as worn by our Pro Team members!

The newest from Toni Braxton is releasing on Feb. 2 and Vampire Weekend’s Contra releases on Jan. 12.

My Ring – Toni Braxton

Horchata – Vampire Weekend

And don’t forget about our BringIt artist Ray Sytles!

BringIt – Ray Sytes

As you remember there are two ways to win an opportunity to game against your favorite Ring of Honor Wrestler; Luck and Skill. Well, we have one Lucky Winner: Paul Donaldson who will be playing against the wrestler of his choice, Colt Cabana in UFC Undisputed 2009 for PS3 on January 5! The Skill portion of this tournament is still to come! Check out BringIt.com to get practice in and we’ll let you know when our ROH Final Battle tournament is up! Good Luck and remember to Bring It!