Stolen from the Whiskey Bar, Night Owl's analysis of the Thuggery World Cup, the most exciting, smashmouth competition in sports today.

The Thuggery World Cup is quite a competitive event.

In the always tough East Asian League: China, Indonesia and Myanmar are 1-2-3.

There is also a very strong African League. Nigeria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sierra Loene, Rwanda, Congo, Liberia, Angola, Morocco, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia.

South Asia has a couple of stalwarts in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The European League has witnessed a marked decline in recent years with the suspensions of most of the Balkan Division teams, but Albania and Romania still field strong clubs.

In the old Soviet League, Russia has been showing new signs of life and can pad its record by continuing to beat up on the Chechen and Georgian teams. The cagey veteran Belarus is always a contender. Ukraine is solid. Turkmenistan is a gamer. Uzbekistan has been on a real hot streak lately.

Guatemala runs away with the Central American League. Cuba doesn't disappoint. Mexico can be tough.

There is always a lot of talent in the South American League. Columbia has been on top for a while now. Peru makes a good showing. Others to watch: Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil. Argentina has been down for a while but recent payroll shakeups may soon produce some different results.

Egypt, Yemen and Turkey are also wild card candidates in the Mid-East League. There's been a lot of talk lately about another up and coming dark horse showing a lot of punch, but some people don't like it when you mention the name.

Other good independents: North Korea, U.S.