There’s an argument to be made that today, Dec. 4, is the biggest sports day of the year (and not just because of the Ohio-Central Michigan game tonight). Today, millions of people will turn their focus toward Cape Town, South Africa, for the 2010 World Cup draw. It’s comparable to college basketball’s Selection Sunday, if it were hit by a gamma ray.
Live Coverage Of 2010 World Cup Draw At Noon, Where We Hope The U.S. Avoids Group Of Death
The announcement of the four pots from which the teams are selected came Wednesday, and since then, speculation and wild guesses have been the norm as everyone tries to accurately predict the eight groups for South Africa.
- Pot 1 (the seeded teams): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England
- Pot 2: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, New Zealand, Honduras, Mexico and USA
- Pot 3: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
- Pot 4: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland
So how’s it work? Eight groups of four countries will be drawn, one from each of the pots. A few quick stipulations: “No two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group). For example, South Africa cannot play the African teams from Pot 3 and Argentina and Brazil cannot be drawn against the three remaining South American teams.”
What’s this all mean for the U.S. of A? Best case, we get host South Africa, along with Uruguay and Switzerland. Worst case: Spain, Ivory Coast and France (which would be essentially a Super Group of Death from which you would need to protect your children).
The draw will be televised live on ESPN2 starting at noon ET today, but if you can’t get near a TV for it, we’ll have you covered right here in this StoryStream.
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