"I'm looking for a Mr Capello?"

No World Cup is complete without a media-appointed Group of Death, the sort of quartet that makes you wince just thinking about it.

Here are seven of the most memorable GoDs in World Cup history:

1. ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, ITALY
(Group C, second phase, 1982 World Cup)
Who made it out alive?

"I'm getting the words 'Group of Death'..."

It's time for you to look into your Sepp Blatter-shaped crystal ball and predict which group England will land in tomorrow's World Cup draw in Cape Town. Exciting stuff, eh.

These are the four pots:

POT 1 (Seeds):
Argentina, Brazil, ENGLAND, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Holland

POT 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America):
Australia, New Zealand, Honduras, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, United States.

On a day when Palos Verdes Estates' Kyle Nakazawa of UCLA was named a semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy Award and UCLA's Sydney Leroux and Lauren Cheney, USC goalkeeper Kristin Olsen, Palos Verdes Estates' Christen Press of Stanford and Rolling Hills Estates' Whitney Engen of North Carolina were all named semifinalists for the corresponding women's award,it's the pending World Cup draw Friday that has center stage.

World Cup 2010 frenzy is hitting its climax this week with the group stage draw only two days away. The FIFA Organizing Committee has today announced the procedure for this draw along with the pots and seeded teams.

Pot 1 (seeded teams and the hosts): South Africa, Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Holland

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania, and CONCACAF): Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Honduras, Mexico, USA, New Zealand

Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

Pot 4 (remaining European teams): Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland

South Africa will automatically be drawn as the first team in Group A, and the rest of Pot 1 will be allocated to groups B through H.

With anticipation building for Friday's World Cup Draw Final Draw, fans of the United States Men's National Team have been handed some bad news in regards to what kind of group the Americans are likely to be drawn into.
FIFA announced the four pots on Tuesday. They are as follows:
Pot 1 - South Africa (hosts), Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain
Pot 2 - Australia, Honduras, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, United States
Pot 3 - Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Paraguay, Uruguay
Pot 4 - Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland
Being paired with the other teams in CONCACAF was no surprise, but by also sharing Pot 2 with the teams from the weaker Asia/Oceania region, this ensures that the U.

Here are the groupings for Friday's World Cup draw. Seeding for the top 8 were strictly set on the top teams from the October 2009 FIFA World Rankings. Only the top 7 will be included, as the host South Africa gets the 8th top seed. One team will then be drawn from each pot to make up the 8 groups of 4 teams each.

Big Story
I'm pretty sure Sepp Blatter and FIFA's executive committee is trying to drive me insane, if not kill me. I'm not sure why they'd have a vendetta against a little-known British-born blogger exiled to the United States, but there can be little other reasonable explanation for them forcing me to write the same commentary over and over again on their practices: stop forcing me to presume you are fixing everything!

As I'm sure you've heard by now, England are to be one of eight seeded teams to compete in the World Cup Finals next summer in South Africa. Italy, Holland, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain and South Africa round out the other seeded nations. France miss out on a seed due to FIFA's decision to not take into consideration performances in past Finals.

CAPE TOWN -- The World Cup draw has yet to take place but the U.S. was already dealt a cruel hand before learning its fate on Friday. Tuesday's pot announcement saw the U.S. and the rest of CONCACAF grouped with the Asia and Oceania qualifiers. Full list below:

Pot 1: South Africa (hosts), Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain

Pot 2: Australia, Honduras, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, United States

Pot 3: Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Paraguay, Uruguay

Pot 4: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland

While the news is certainly unfortunate, there's no reason to believe FIFA would do anything to favor the Americans.

After much intense speculation we now know which teams are in which pots for tomorrow's World Cup finals draw. As suggested here on November 24th the French have paid for Thierry Henry's juggling act in the play off against Ireland with demotion to a non-seed pot. While FIFA obviously won't admit it, the French are being punished.

In a matter of hours, the 2010 World Cup field will be officially set. The draw is set to be made at 17:00 GMT time and 19:00 South Africa time. At a FIFA executive meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, FIFA decided eight seeds: hosts South Africa, title holders Italy, Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, the Netherlands and [.

Happy holidays from Soccer Source! In the spirit of things, we thought it would be a good idea to identify 10 questions facing world soccer in 2010 and rank them according to (our perceived order of) importance. Note that while we might claim these are "world" soccer issues, true imperialists that we are the list is almost entirely U.