World Football Challenge kicks off Sunday

Atlanta will have to wait until the middle of the week, but the World Football Challenge gets underway Sunday, with all of the games during the four-team round robin event available on ESPN and ESPN2. Some links to check out as the games begin:

• Here’s a good overview of all four teams — AC Milan, Inter Milan, Club América and Chelsea — with a complete schedule.

• As Atlanta Soccer News reported Saturday, an estimated 26,000 tickets for Wednesday’s match at the Georgia Dome between Club América and AC Milan have been sold. A discount group ticket offer via Georgia Soccer is running through Monday.

• On Sunday Club América will take on reigning Italian Serie A champions Inter Milan in Palo, Alto, Calif., in a match that can be seen at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

• AC Milan also is on the West Coast, but will play the Los Angeles Galaxy Sunday in a friendly at the Home Depot Center. Kickoff is at 10 p.m. ET on the Fox regional sports networks (though I don’t see anything listed locally in Atlanta). Will this really be the emotional clash — with David Beckham as the ubiquitous focal point — that is being hyped?

• The AJC’s Doug Roberson asks a rather audacious question: Does Oguchi Onyewu’s move to AC Milan represent “the most important signing in U.S. soccer history?” Rick Skirvin of Georgia Soccer and Jill Robbins of Atlanta-based Soccer in the Steets talk about what Onyewu’s transfer symbolizes for youth and minority players. A good read, a fresh examination of an issue that’s always prevalent in American soccer player development circles.

• Baltimore has sold out next Friday’s AC Milan-Chelsea match, and the hometown Sun examines the growing popularity of soccer as a spectator sport in the United States.

• But not everybody is thrilled with the World Football Challenge, which is taking place during the middle of the MLS season, the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the U.S. Open Cup. Are international soccer events on these shores crowding out the American game? Are those fans who like to watch the global elites — some call ‘em Eurosnobs — part of the problem?

I’ll reveal where I come down on this subject in the next few days, before Wednesday’s big match in Atlanta.