By this time Friday, the World Cup soccer tournament will have begun in South Africa, and this blog's World Cup prediction game will be under way. Players in our game will pick winners in the tourney one day at a time, with choices not due until minutes before game time each day.

The first two matches are on Friday morning -- South Africa and Mexico, starting at 7 a.m. our time. The home team usually overachieves at the tournament, at least when it's held in an exotic place like Johannesburg, but... Uruguay and France, the other game in that group, kicks of at 11 our time. The tournament rolls on until the last head-butt on July 11.

If you want to compete for drinks and glory -- it's free -- just shoot me an e-mail message and I'll get you an invite right away. You'll need a Yahoo account (also free) to play. Beyond that, it doesn't matter whether you call it soccer or football, a field or a pitch, a team or a side, or chopped liver for that matter. You can be our champ.

And go, Cameroon!