What does SI know?!? (Not much)

Sports Illustrated's cover story is on the World Cup, featuring Beasley, Convey, Donovan, and Gooch on the cover. That's the good news.

But in the issue, staff writer Mark Bechtel offers his predictions on who will don the Golden Boot, given to the tournament's top scorer. He predicts the honor will go to one of the following: Milan Baros of the Czech Republic, Brazil's Ronaldo, France's Thierry Henry, Italy's Luca Toni, or Portugal's Pauleta.

Note that two of his predictions play for teams in the USA group. So let's think this through. Does Bechtel think the US will make it out of group stage? Apparently not! How else could either Baros or Toni win the golden boot unless they play beyond the second week. Great! Well, I suppose the one bright spot in all this is that Bechtel's prediction will be as bankable as some of their others over the years.