FIFA WORLD CUP

This weekend saw the fifa world cup draw take place in South Africa. As the 2010 world cup draws closer the draw has been held and they are as follows:

• Group A – South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay and France
• Group B – Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic and Greece
• Group C – England, USA, Algeria and Slovenia
• Group D – Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana
• Group E – Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and Cameroon
• Group F – Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia
• Group G – Brazil, Korea DPR, Ivory Coast and Portugal
• Group H – Spain, Switzerland, Honduras and Chile

Australia looks to have a tough draw with no apparent weak links in group D, Germany are the clear standout and fierce competition coming from Serbia and Ghana reaching the final 16 will be no easy feat for Australia. Of all the groups, group G looks to be the group of death powerhouses Brazil and Portugal in the same group as African superpower Ivory Coast and Asian veterans Korea DPR.

With the excitement of the draw taking place South Africa has gone into full 2010 world cup mode with wild celebrations and parties across the country. Next years fifa world cup is one step closer and with six months remaining until the first game it can’t come quick enough!

Fifa has released the seedings of Friday’s 2010 world cup draw. The seeding has mainly concentrated on geographical location, the formula for seeding is based on the recent world rankings. The top teams are as follows:

1 Germany
2 Brazil
3 Italy
4 Spain
5 England
6 Argentina
7 Netherlands

For Australia this means that it could potentially be placed in one of the two ‘groups of death’ with a seeded country, plus one of either France or Portugal who were not seeded. The pots for the event are:

Pot 1: Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain
Pot 2: Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Israel, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey
Pot 3: Australia, Costa Rica, Iran, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, USA, Trinidad and Tobago
Pot 4: Cameroon, Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Paraguay, Uruguay

With teams in the same pot not eligible to draw in the same group. Friday is set to be an interesting day for the 2010 world cup draw.