Your World Cup Groups

Well, here they are:

Group A
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France’s hand

Group B
Argentina
Nigeria
Korea, Good
Greece

Group C
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Group D
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E
The DutchNetherHolland
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G
Brazil
Korea, Bad
Côte d’Ivoire
Portugal

Group H
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

So it looks like your Four Guys are going to:

Durban on 13 June to see Germany.
Rustenburg on 19 June to see Ghana
Nelspruit on 23 June to see Serbia.

And we’re sure as hell going to try to hit the England/USA match on Saturday, 12 June in Rustenburg. Although that will be one hot ticket.

Australia and USA

So far, the Aussies have been put in Group D with Germany. The Yanks are in Group C with England....

Draw day

One hour to the FIFA draw (I was mistaken earlier; I thought it was at noon Eastern U.S. time - silly me. The broadcast starts at noon; naturally, we have 45 minutes of wank time for the teevee commentators to bloviate, the obligatory South Africa tourism puff pieces, the doubly obligatory Nelson Mandela interviews ... -Ed.). Here are the “pots” from which groupings will be drawn:

Pot 1 (which consists of the host nation and the top seven teams)
Argentina
Brazil
England
Germany
Italy
The DutchNetherHolland
Spain
South Africa

Pot 2 (Asia, CONCACAF and Oceania)
Australia
Honduras
Japan
Korea, Bad
Korea, Good
Mexico
New Zealand
MUTHAFUCKIN U.S.A.!

Pot 3 (Africa and South America)
Algeria
Camerooooooooon
Chile
Côte d’Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Paraguay
Uruguay

Pot 4 (Europe)
Denmark, Something’s Rotten In
France’s hands
Greece
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Switzerland, even the bigots

These pots were based solely on the October 2009 FIFA World Rankings. (N.B. USA is at #11, seven spots ahead of Mexico. So you’d think we’d get a better seed with that and the fact that we won our group; alas, we will be screwed by FIFA again.)

Fun facts about the draw: Brazil and Argentina may not be drawn with any remaining South African nations (Pot 3), and South Africa may not be drawn with any other African nation (Pot 3).

Here’s the fine print on the draw procedure, if you want a crash course in the next 65 minutes.

Y'all ready for this?

T minus three hours, 50 minutes until the FIFA 2010 World Cup Final Draw.

Drew will be up at an ungodly hour in Australia to watch. I'll be in my office at work, on a slight deadline but still paying attention ... because, well, it's football, gall-durnit. And because of the children. We must always think of the children.

Let's Make It Interesting

For those following FGOC leading up to the World Cup in June/July, I've set up a "Four Guys, One Cup" group for the ESPN Soccernet Bracket Predictor on ESPN.com.

Try to make it a little more interesting to pick which of the 32 teams might hoist that bizarre trophy after a month of soccer/football.

First select which two teams will advance out of each the eight groups. The order you select them - 1st or 2nd - determines where they are placed in the 16-team bracket. Then predict the winner of the 15 bracket matches throughout the Finals. All picks lock with the first kickoff on Friday, June 11, 2010.

Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/bpredictor/en/group?groupID=432

Group: Four Guys, One Cup
Password: yourmom

It'll have to sub until we have to peel Hoover and FST from the tables at Sun City.

Oh, and Daddy is getting ready to get up at 4 am Saturday morning to watch the draw. Then the real fun begins...

T minus three days

Well, it’s December, which means that here in Washington it’s getting cold and the sun is setting at 4 p.m. Down in the Antipodes, where Drew and Mike reside, it’s summertime, so those jackasses are hitting the beach, like, daily. Because they suck.

That also means we are three days away from the Final Draw. At 7 p.m. local time in Cape Town (noon in Washington, 2 a.m. Saturday in Seoul and 4 a.m. Saturday in Melbourne), FIFA will announce the group seeding for next year’s little football contest.

Indeed, every Draw throws up at least one fiercely competitive section, where several traditional powers have to fight for the right to progress. Who can forget Group C at Germany 2006, which comprised Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire, Serbia and Montenegro and the Netherlands? Then there are the dark horses to contend with, quality teams which strive to spring a surprise and relish the opportunity to upset the game’s established heavyweights.

Yeah, and what they didn’t say is that the United States typically gets screwed in the draw, even if we win our region, as we did this year. You watch. They’ll seed Mexico higher, and we’ll get the shaft.

Speaking of shafts, here’s one more thing we’ll have to worry about next year: meteors.



Then again, perhaps celestial catastrophes could make for some game-saving diversions, allowing Thierry Henry to hand-ball another goal. You never know.

32 Are In

Following this week's action, we now know the 32 teams that will be joining FGOC in South Africa next June.

EUROPE ZONE (13 places available):
England
Spain
The Netherlands
Italy
Serbia
Denmark
Slovakia
Switzerland
Germany
Greece
France (Cheaters)
Portugal
Slovenia

ASIA ZONE (Four automatic places, plus one play-off place):
Australia
DPR Korea
Japan
Korean Republic

AFRICA ZONE (5 automatic places sealed, plus South Africa automatically qualify as the host nation):
South Africa (Hosts)
Algeria
Cote d’Ivoire
Nigeria
Cameroon
Ghana

SOUTH AMERICA ZONE (Four automatic places, plus Uruguay, who beat Costa Rica to qualify):
Brazil
Chile
Paraguay
Argentina
Uruguay

NORTH, CENTRAL AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN ZONE (Three automatic places, plus one play-off place - Costa Rica, who lost to Uruguay in the playoff's):
Mexico
Honduras
USA

OCEANIA ZONE (New Zealand beat Asia Zone runners-up Bahrain 1-0 in play-off to qualify):
New Zealand

Now it gets interesting. We won't know who Australia will play until December 4 (December 5 in Oz). I must say that there aren't many teams here I wouldn't want to see.

But if I had to pick: England, France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Brazil would be my top choices in addition to the USA and Australia. Of course, it'll probably be the other ones that are the most fun - I like that it'll be unexpected - like one of the African teams or something.

I've seen Japan, Greece, USA, Mexico, Australia, and Argentina in person before.

Who do you want to see?