Generation June is face-to-face with the realization that usually pushes people from the glittering hope of youth toward the dreary pragmatism of middle age: dreams don't always come true. In six months, they've lived an entire life cycle on fast forward, experiencing all the things that take aim at innocence, from fear to comfort, from cynicism to violence. "Here we have these students who are so full of hope that they can change the world," explains Julio Jeha, a university professor who marched against the dictatorship decades ago. "They are starry eyed. You look at them and think, 'Oh, my God, they don't know what they're up against.'"

more importantly, i just "watched" the draws for the world cup drop. will post when available but the usa got germany, ghana and portugal. not impossible to finish in the top two to move on to the second round but very unlikely.
- dave 12-06-2013 5:21 pm

the us beat germany earlier this year (the us coach is a former german star) but it was a friendly and was mostly against the second stringers, ghana knocked the us out of the last world cup and portugal despite underperforming and barely qualifying has the second best player in the world in ronaldo.
- dave 12-06-2013 5:26 pm

Group A Brazil Croatia Mexico Cameroon

Group B Spain Netherlands Chile Australia

Group C Colombia Greece Côte d'Ivoire Japan

Group D Uruguay Costa Rica England Italy

Group E Switzerland Ecuador France Honduras

Group F Argentina Bosnia-Herzegovina Iran Nigeria

Group G Germany Portugal Ghana USA

Group H Belgium Algeria Russia Korea Republic

What if FIFA Seeded The World Cup The Way Americans Would?

Group A 'Merrica!

Group B Commies

Group C No idea these countries even existed

Group D Has anyone seen Canada?

Group E I think we've bombed them at some point

Group F Cheap Labor

Group G Holy shit! there are a lot of countries in this thing

Group H We can't be extradited from here.

just to get a sense of the difficulties of each group ive added the fifa rankings. the rankings are far from perfect but they give a relative idea of the quality of each team. had the groupings sought to create even contests in each group the total for each group would be about 66. so by cumulative rankings the us is one of two groups with 52 the lowest total.

Group A *74* Brazil (1) Croatia (18) Mexico (23) Cameroon (32) 

Group B *54* Spain (2) Netherlands (9) Chile (12) Australia(31)

Group C *65* Colombia (5) Greece (15) Côte d'Ivoire (17) Japan (28)

Group D *52* Uruguay  (7) Costa Rica (24) England (11) Italy (10)

Group E *76* Switzerland (8) Ecuador (21) France (20) Honduras (27)

Group F *75* Argentina (4) Bosnia-Herzegovina (16) Iran (29) Nigeria (26)

Group G *52* Germany (3) Portugal (14) Ghana (22) USA (13)

Group H *80* Belgium (6) Algeria (25) Russia (19) Korea Republic (30)