Unless you have been living under a ball in the past few months, you should know that the FIFA World Cup 2006 on Germany will start in about one week. Most of the world will stop to see how the 32 selected countries will do in this that’s the most popular single sport tournament in the world, and it seems this will the most hyped up World Cup ever thanks to the internet.

For instance, FIFA will have live match reports (done with Flash) on their page; you can see the match schedule in advance here. You can also read news from your selected country on their page too.

Google Calendar users will also like to know that a public Calendar for FIFA World Cup 2006 is available. Click to add it to your calendar, so you’ll know the day and time (adapted to your local zone) of each match in advance (see an screenshot here).

Still in the world of Flash, Biskero.org points to a couple of Flash Lite applications that will help you get through the tournament.

Talking about Flash, YouTube is literally exploding with pre-World Cup goodness and goofyness. See The Peter Crouch Story for some robot dance, a World Cup 2002 compilation, a World Cup 2006 preview, Alan Partridge’s World Cup 1994 countdown showing how a goal should not be narrated, how football players can rap (answer: depends on what continent you’re from), the biggest “WTF?” moment from the recent friendlies (a goalkeeper scoring a goal from across the field), and some other funny moments in the history of football. How some people don’t like football I’ll never understand.

If you don’t know much about the WorldCup, however, WikiPedia has got you covered with a lengthy explanation about it, including tournament charts. BBC’s automated World Cup Predictor is also a good way to start, since you can input the result of the matches as you predict they will unfold and then see who has to play against who in the coming matches.

And finally, if you’re feeling verbal and you want to let others know how much your team rules and other teams suck, you can rely on the WorldCupBlog to release your inner supporter voice. That website is also a great source for news from the eyes of real supporters from all over the world (if you want something more personal than just some watered down press article).