Here, let's make this easy and for everyone: Here are Kicker Magazine's Draw Predicitons: #1 seeds: Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Italy, England, Mexico, France. #2 seeds: Netherlands, USA, South Korea, Sweden, Croatia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Japan. #3 seeds: Portugal, Czech Republic, Iran, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Serbia & Montenegro, Tunisia, Ecuador. #4 seeds: Switzerland, Ivory Coast, Ukraine, Trinidad & Tobago, Australia, Ghana, Angola, Togo. Now, draw up your own groups and post them here. No contest, no geeks, no bs. Just football. Here are mine: Group 1. Brazil, Sweden, Tunisia, Australia Group 2. Germany, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland Group 3. Spain, Netherlands, Ecuador, TnT Group 4. Argentina, Croatia, Portugal, Ghana Group 5. Italy, USA, Tunisia, Ukriane Group 6. England, South Korea, Iran, Togo Group 7, Mexico, Japan, Portugal, Ivory Coast Group 8, France, Paraguay, Poland, Ghana. My goals, like FIFA, is to make sure Brazil, England and Germany get through, give the Spanish and the Italians a hard time, and regional balance in each group. No real group of death, but Group 5 is really close to one.
Kicker's wrong. Their pots are nonsense. FIFA has recently stated that the pots will be geographical, not according to rankings (aside form the seeds of course), confirming that kicker was just guessing and did a pretty bad job of that.
Woah... dude. Ombak's right.... Kicker is wrong. Here: FIFA Draw News The only seeds are #1 seeds, based on a seeding formula. The rest of the 24 teams, like FIFA says, will be put into pots based on geography, believed to mean there are no #2 seeds, #3 seeds, or #4 seeds based on skill. This makes the draw more exciting because anything can happen: it could be Brazil, USA, Holland and Iran. Also, as someone else pointed out, like the FIFA article explains, teams from the same confederation cannot play against each other usnless it's UEFA in group stage (Iran cannot be grouped with South Korea). I mean... unless Kicker knows something that everyone else doesn't know. This is how it was done last year and evidence exists to believe it will be done the same way. It's the luck of the draw.
And in what way, exactly, do Costa Rica, South Korea, Japan, Croatia, and Paraguay deserva a 2nd seed over Portugal and THe Cezch Republic?
my exact same thoughts? fifa doesnt know how to assembly things not even a desk.... lets hope they dont screw up the draw this friday 3:00pm on sportsnet.