Since the draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is only about 110 hours away, I thought we should have a thread discussing what your ideal draw would be for your country.
FIFA has yet to announce the exact draw methodology. Here is a blog post that explains the possibilities rather well, I thought.
http://internationalfootballtalk.blogspot.com/
Lets assume that they will use basically the same format as last time, or Option 1, to make things easy.
Looking at the pots, this is going to be a pretty tough World Cup for the U.S. I mean, it's really a huge bummer to me that instead of facing a nation like New Zealand, we have to go up against the likes of Uruguay or the Cote. A team like Chile scares the hell out of me, led by Marcelo Bielsa, using the ridiculous 3-3-1-3 that could potentially rip the U.S. to shreds. These pots are seemingly set up to cause a lot of surprises and give the African teams somewhat of an upper hand.
So go ahead and give your ideal draw for your boys, the worst possible draw in your opinion, and what sort of Group of Death you'd like to see. Also, we can discuss which drawing method you want FIFA to use.
FIFA has yet to announce the exact draw methodology. Here is a blog post that explains the possibilities rather well, I thought.
Ok so FIFA will decide shortly how they will allocate teams to certain pots. Here are the most likely scenarios.
Option 1 would be the same format they used in 2006 except this time they wouldn’t need a special pot because there will be 8 unseeded UEFA teams. Pot A would contain the seeded teams, Pot B the UEFA teams, Pot C the African and South American teams, but to avoid teams from the same confederation ending up in the same group South Africa would draw from South America and the two seeded South American teams would draw from Africa before the South American and African teams would be placed into Pot C. Finally, Pot D would contain Asia, Oceania, and CONCACAF teams.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain
Pot B – Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Potugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot C – Algeria, Camerron, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruaguay
Pot D – Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, New Zealand, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Option 2 would be similar to option 1 but Pot C and Pot D would change. FIFA might use this since this time around the remianing unseeded South American teams have a lower combined ranking than the CONCACAF teams so they would group CONCACAF and Africa together to create a stronger pot C and a weaker Pot D creating the likelihood of more balanced groups. This would make Pot D Asia, Oceania, and South America. In this scenario South Africa would draw from CONCACAF before Pot C teams are placed in pot together and Argentina and Brazil would draw from Asia/Oceania before Pot D teams are placed together. Again this is to avoid teams in same confederation to be put into same group.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain
Pot B – Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot C – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Pot D – Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
Option 3 is a little different. You would still have four pots but not all pots would have 8 teams. Pots A and B would stay the same, but Pot C and Pot D would be differeny and more based on geography. Pot C would conteain teams from Asia/Oceania and Africa, while Pot D would contain teams from the Americas. However Pot C would be split at first with teams from Asia/Oceania and Africa because in this scenario every group picks one team from each pot with the exception of the groups containing Argentian and Brazil as they would draw two teams from Pot C. One from the Asia/Oceania side and one from the African side.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Argentian, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain
Pot B – Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot C – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, New Zealand
Pot D – Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Option 4 is similar to the draw procedure used in the UEFA Champions League. Teams would be ranked 1-32. Placed into 4 pots. However, still the teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn together would still apply much like teams from the same country can’t be drawn into the same group. Pot A would contain 1-8, Pot B 9-16, Pot C 17-24, and Pot D 25-32. I ranked the teams based on the seeding formula and not the FIFA rankings.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Spain, England, France, Argentina
Pot B – Portugal, Netherlands, Mexico, USA, Switzerland, Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon
Pot C- Korea Republic, Japan, Australia, Ivory Coast, Greece, Nigeria, Serbia, Uruguay
Pot D – Denmark, Chile, Slovenia, Honduras, Slovakia, Algeria, New Zealand, Korea DPR
Option 1 would be the same format they used in 2006 except this time they wouldn’t need a special pot because there will be 8 unseeded UEFA teams. Pot A would contain the seeded teams, Pot B the UEFA teams, Pot C the African and South American teams, but to avoid teams from the same confederation ending up in the same group South Africa would draw from South America and the two seeded South American teams would draw from Africa before the South American and African teams would be placed into Pot C. Finally, Pot D would contain Asia, Oceania, and CONCACAF teams.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain
Pot B – Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Potugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot C – Algeria, Camerron, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruaguay
Pot D – Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, New Zealand, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Option 2 would be similar to option 1 but Pot C and Pot D would change. FIFA might use this since this time around the remianing unseeded South American teams have a lower combined ranking than the CONCACAF teams so they would group CONCACAF and Africa together to create a stronger pot C and a weaker Pot D creating the likelihood of more balanced groups. This would make Pot D Asia, Oceania, and South America. In this scenario South Africa would draw from CONCACAF before Pot C teams are placed in pot together and Argentina and Brazil would draw from Asia/Oceania before Pot D teams are placed together. Again this is to avoid teams in same confederation to be put into same group.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain
Pot B – Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot C – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Pot D – Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
Option 3 is a little different. You would still have four pots but not all pots would have 8 teams. Pots A and B would stay the same, but Pot C and Pot D would be differeny and more based on geography. Pot C would conteain teams from Asia/Oceania and Africa, while Pot D would contain teams from the Americas. However Pot C would be split at first with teams from Asia/Oceania and Africa because in this scenario every group picks one team from each pot with the exception of the groups containing Argentian and Brazil as they would draw two teams from Pot C. One from the Asia/Oceania side and one from the African side.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Argentian, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Spain
Pot B – Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Pot C – Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, New Zealand
Pot D – Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Honduras, Mexico, USA
Option 4 is similar to the draw procedure used in the UEFA Champions League. Teams would be ranked 1-32. Placed into 4 pots. However, still the teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn together would still apply much like teams from the same country can’t be drawn into the same group. Pot A would contain 1-8, Pot B 9-16, Pot C 17-24, and Pot D 25-32. I ranked the teams based on the seeding formula and not the FIFA rankings.
Pot A – South Africa, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Spain, England, France, Argentina
Pot B – Portugal, Netherlands, Mexico, USA, Switzerland, Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon
Pot C- Korea Republic, Japan, Australia, Ivory Coast, Greece, Nigeria, Serbia, Uruguay
Pot D – Denmark, Chile, Slovenia, Honduras, Slovakia, Algeria, New Zealand, Korea DPR
Lets assume that they will use basically the same format as last time, or Option 1, to make things easy.
Looking at the pots, this is going to be a pretty tough World Cup for the U.S. I mean, it's really a huge bummer to me that instead of facing a nation like New Zealand, we have to go up against the likes of Uruguay or the Cote. A team like Chile scares the hell out of me, led by Marcelo Bielsa, using the ridiculous 3-3-1-3 that could potentially rip the U.S. to shreds. These pots are seemingly set up to cause a lot of surprises and give the African teams somewhat of an upper hand.
So go ahead and give your ideal draw for your boys, the worst possible draw in your opinion, and what sort of Group of Death you'd like to see. Also, we can discuss which drawing method you want FIFA to use.
