This proved to be the toughest group in soccer play this year. It also looks like a very tough group for national anthems. mp3 links coming soon.

A tough group. This could be the “Group of Death” this year.

Post your choices in comments — remember, the top two go through. Results later this week.

Update: Results!

Well, it’s clear that Germany goes through on top, handily. With the near-unbeatable combination of lyrical bombast (Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!), geographical aggression (the rivers name-checked in the first stanza are all in neighboring countries — watch out Lithuania!), and a nod to the finer things in life (German wine, German women, and German song in the little-used second stanza), Das Lied der Deutschen just rolls over the competition. A national anthem designed as a drinking song: true German craftsmanship.

The second slot was a tougher battle. Two Latin American nations versus Poland (which, according to Das Deutschenleid, is actually part of Germany). Poland’s anthem was actually written during a time when Poland didn’t really exist as a state, so that’s a plus. Lyrics about overcoming the enemy and reuniting the nation are pretty awesome, though they lose a few points for name-checking Napoleon. Still, enough to go through against Ecuador and Costa Rica. Those two anthems are really nothing special.

Winner: Germany. Runner-Up: Poland.

Anyway, the anthem contains a few lyrical gems which seem quaint today, but on the whole I still think it’s really great. I guess Russia’s using a watered-down version of the same song to this day, but instead of awesome lyrics about Lenin and Stalin, and fluttering scarlet banners, they’re singing now about how big their country is, and how it has both costal and arctic regions. They’ve traded in one of the great inspiring national anthems for a cheap knockoff of ‘America, the Beautiful’. Shape up, Russia.

Coming soon: the World Cup of National Anthems!

First, the anthem of the Former Soviet Union.

• Anthem of the Soviet Union, 1977 version, first verse - sung by children’s choir.
• Anthem of the Soviet Union, 1977 version, all verses - sung by the Red Army Chorus.

English Translation:

Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,
Great Russia has welded forever to stand.
Created in struggle by will of the people,
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

CHORUS:

Sing to the Fatherland, home of the free,
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,
To Communism’s triumph lead us on!

Joey Chestnut ate 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes today. That’s only 3.5 off the world record, held by (previously believed to be completely unbeatable) Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi.

When you land in France you see French flags flying; they are red, white, and blue, the same colors as our own flag, but their flags have only three stripes and the stripes are up and down, not from side to side, and the colors are backward — blue, white, red, instead of red, white, blue. The street signs and the signs on the buildings are in a different language, the people are talking a different language, and of course the money is different too. It is called “francs.”

You have probably heard some one say, “You look like your father or mother,” but they don’t say that your father or mother looks like you. Well, up the River Seine is the capital and largest city of France, spelled “Paris,” but called “Paree” by the French people. Some call it the most beautiful city i.t.w.W. [in the whole World — tew] People often say some other very beautiful city looks “like Paris,” but they never say Paris looks like any other city.

From A Child’s Geography of the World, by V. M. Hillyer (1929).