The pots for the 2014 World Cup draw have been confirmed by FIFA, and they are exactly as expected. The seeded teams are in Pot 1, the African and South American teams are in Pot 2, the CONCACAF and Asian teams are in Pot 3 and the remaining European teams are in Pot 4.
2014 World Cup Draw: FIFA sets pots for Friday’s draw
A wildcard European team could throw a kicker into the World Cup draw. Click here for the full results.
Because there are more than eight European teams, there will be one European team that can be drawn from Pot 2, making it essentially a wildcard team. That could be the team that makes the Group of Death, with a team like the Netherlands or Portugal going to Pot 2 and being drawn with Brazil and Italy, hypothetically.
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Join SB Nation and KickTV for a chat during the World Cup draw and a live video show after, where we'll take your questions. The pots put the strong teams in Pot 3 at a disadvantage because it is undoubtedly the weakest pot in the draw. Teams like the U.S., Mexico and Japan will not have the opportunity to get Honduras, Costa Rica or Iran in their group, making their groups much more difficult, but FIFA didn’t make much of another choice with the pots. Because CONCACAF and Asia each got four teams into the World Cup, they made for a perfect marriage in an eight-team pot.
As of now, the only team that knows where it is playing its group stage matches in Brazil. They have been given the spot of Group A, Team 1, allowing it to play in the tournament’s opening match. The remainder of the teams will be drawn into groups at random, and then drawn again into one of the four places in that group, which will determine where and when it plays its matches.
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