Despite Liverpool’s painful struggles, including not advancing to the final of the Europa Cup last week against Atletico Madrid, and failing to finish in the top four of the EPL, I at least have the usual once-every-four-years optimism over England’s chances in the FIFA World Cup next month in South Africa. This is a mature England team, with players of the caliber of Lampard, Terry, Gerrard and Rooney all seemingly playing the best football of their careers right now. With it being winter down there, the weather won’t be the factor that is sometimes has been in previous World Cups, and the group pairing should see both England and the US get through comfortably to the round of 16.

On the subject of World Cup, we couldn’t be more proud of the quality of our FIFA World Cup game. We’re pleased it’s earned such great critical acclaim, and my congratulations go out to the team at EAC who have delivered another outstanding football product.

Meanwhile, I wish I could have been in Barcelona last weekend to see 21-year-old American Nenad Stojkovic crowned sixth FIFA Interactive World Cup Champion. He beat out more than 775,000 competitors, and it’s with great pride that I see how much this event has evolved since I first helped kick the tournament off 6 years ago while I was at Microsoft and we pitched the concept to FIFA and EA SPORTS. I’m delighted that an American could be so successful on the world stage. Congrats to Nenad.

As I’ve said a number of times, we have an opportunity to pioneer new ways to play new games to extend EA SPORTS experiences to a broader audience, particularly in a World Cup year and at a time when we see such an appetite for fans to connect through interactive football. It’s exciting to see how our EA SPORTS FIFA-branded suite of games can serve as outlets for fans to demonstrate their passion for football. Our FIFA products connect fans from all over the world who share a common passion for the sport, and soon our partnership with Playfish will allow us to bring the FIFA brand to the growing Facebook community with a new game called FIFA Superstars.

Leveraging our football gaming knowledge and marrying it with the social gaming expertise of our partners at Playfish is sure to provide more great opportunities to bring hundreds of millions of new fans to compete against their friends to win the FIFA World Cup through an engaging interactive football experience.

More to come on FIFA Superstars coming soon, but in the meantime I’m making sure my television is in tip-top condition, my England jersey is clean and pressed, and the fridge is well-stocked for next month’s festivities…