LOS ANGELES – As soon as a few contractual wrinkles are ironed out, Landon Donovan will head out of Los Angeles and jump headfirst into the most important challenge of his career.

A loan stint with Everton of the English Premier League is a crucial crossroads in the soccer life of the USA's best-known and most talented player, with the looming shadow of the fast-approaching 2010 World Cup constantly in his thoughts.

It is the desire to shine in South Africa next summer and atone for the galling personal anguish he felt after his dismal showing in the 2006 tournament that was the driving force behind the decision to head to Everton.

The EPL is perhaps soccer's toughest proving ground, a physical and mental minefield in which some of the game's biggest reputations have come unstuck.

Donovan says he wants the challenge, relishes it, and has no expectations of an easy ride. That's just as well, because he won't get one.

However, the 27-year-old's importance to the national team, a point

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo

A note to the mildly delusional posse of Serie A fanatics who clog up my inbox each week with colorfully prosed assertions that the Italian league is the finest in the world: I still don't agree with you.

However, as this season wears on and the English Premier League gives us its usual dose of rugged intensity and La Liga follows suit with its customary technical brilliance, I find myself increasingly drawn to Serie A.

The overall standard of play in Italy has dipped significantly over the past few years, with the world's elite players generally heading to the higher-profile pastures of England or Spain if given the choice. Italian clubs also have struggled in Europe in recent times, with only one Champions League quarterfinal appearance in the past two years.

Yet Serie A is becoming an ever-increasing soap opera with unthinkably dramatic story lines adding spice and color to what might have been an otherwise bland campaign.

Take this

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo

The Old Lady of Italian soccer is sick right now, with a seam of poison running through a season that was supposed to signal a return to the good times.

For those who have followed Juventus' tortuous path through the past few years, the frustration is ceaseless, with every tantalizing glimmer of hope snatched away as soon as it appears.

The Turin club suffered the ignominy of relegation following the 2006 Italian match-fixing scandal and has found some of the toughest days in its history in recent times. But spirits have rarely been lower than this week, as another campaign was laid to ruin Tuesday night with a devastating Champions League home defeat to Bayern Munich.

Earning your living by getting hit in the face with malevolent fists cased in leather may not seem to be the smartest of decisions. For Lamont Peterson, it was the one that saved his life.

For Peterson, who Saturday challenges Timothy Bradley for the WBO junior welterweight belt, the unforgiving ring is where he found safety, fistic weapons of intent notwithstanding.

He goes into the fight at the Agua Caliente Resort in Rancho Mirage, Calif., as an underdog, but the 25-year-old's upbringing means he will always pay scant regard to the moneyline.

Life itself came at long odds for Peterson, who grew up in poverty in Washington, D.C., along with his brother Anthony, also now a professional boxer with 29 consecutive wins to Lamont's 27.

Until the age of 10, Peterson's future was as unpredictable as the illicit alleys and potted streets where he and Anthony bounced between homeless shelters, abandoned cars and bus stations.

Drugs and crime were facts of life in the neighborhood and most of

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo

There is rarely a dull week in the life of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Real Madrid superstar never strays too far from the spotlight, whether it is being romantically linked to Paris Hilton, making a multi-million-dollar transfer or scoring spectacular goals.

But even by his standards, the last few days provided a glut of talking points – ones that he would love to forget.

First up was the Ballon d'Or award, where Ronaldo surrendered his title as the best player in Europe to Barcelona's brilliant Lionel Messi. If that came as no major shock, then the World Cup draw was a somewhat ruder awakening, as Ronaldo and his Portugal teammates were thrust into the 2010 version of the Group of Death.

A Group G matchup with heavyweights Brazil and Ivory Coast has electrified the soccer world, with the games between those sides among some of the most eagerly anticipated first-round clashes.

But for Ronaldo – a player who is sick of hearing his ability to

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo

For the man who believes he is ready, the truest of tests holds no fear.

So it is thus for Bob Bradley and the United States, whose World Cup dates of destiny were inked on Friday and for whom the path to proving self-worth now has perfect clarity.

Bradley has always treated the 2010 World Cup as a four-year process building toward a mighty crescendo, rather than simply a month-long stab at glory. The head coach has also demanded to be judged on the final product of his work, rather than the learning curve he has taken his players through since the side bombed out of Germany 2006 with just one point from three games.

Now he will be, fairly and comprehensively.

With the way the enthralling events of the draw in Cape Town took place – where not a ball was kicked nor a tackle made, yet somehow drama worthy of an audience in the tens of millions was produced – the USA received an ideal outcome.

Group C is not the easiest in the tournament.

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo

Let the countdown begin.

Friday's World Cup draw in Cape Town, South Africa, lit the fuse on one of the most anticipated tournaments in soccer history and kicked off a six-month glut of prediction and speculation.

As ever, millions around the world waited with whitened knuckles as their nation's fate rested in a faraway goldfish bowl. As ever, there was a Group of Death, potentially with thrilling matchups and a wealth of intriguing storylines to look forward to.

Here we take a look at the groups and games that will send the soccer world into a frenzy from June 11 onward.

Just six months to go. Get excited.

Group A

No host nation has ever been eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup, but that is a very real possibility for a weak South African side that ended up with a tough draw.

France was the big winner here, ending up with a scenario that is easier than if it had been seeded. The French are riding their luck just after

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter at @mrogersyahoo

Men in suits, plastic balls and goldfish bowls will provide one of world soccer's great spectacles on Friday, and the conjecture and speculation is already in full flow.

The World Cup draw is the greatest show leading up to the greatest show in sports and makes even the sanest of soccer fans morph into a creation that is part-mathematician, part-fortune teller and part-kid-waiting-impatiently-for-Christmas-to-arrive.

For the United States, the events of Friday in the South African city of Cape Town will have a huge bearing on the team's chances of making headway in next summer's tournament. With Bob Bradley's side lumped in a pot alongside some of the weakest nations in the event, the chances increase of the Americans ending up in a Group of Death against three heavyweight opponents.

Here we take a look at the best- and worst-case scenarios, plus a possible group that will evoke some mixed recent memories.

The good …

… South Africa, USA,