We are one day away from the heavily-anticipated 2010 World Cup Final Draw, an event that will be watched by hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Instead of waiting another 24 hours to find out what the groups will look like next June in South Africa, I've held a mock draw of my own. The results were as follows:
Group A: South Africa, Honduras, Uruguay, Serbia
Group B: Brazil, North Korea, Chile, Portugal
Group C: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, France
Group D: The Netherlands, Australia, Ghana, Slovenia
Group E: Spain, Mexico, Cameroon, Slovakia
Group F: England, Japan, Algeria, Switzerland
Group G: Germany, United States, Paraguay, Denmark
Group H: Italy, New Zealand, Cote d'Ivoire, Greece
- The United States was drawn into Group G along with Germany, Denmark and Paraguay, ranked 6th, 26th and 30th, respectively.

The draw for the 2010 World Cup is complete.
A couple of the groups contend for the "Group of Death" label. Group D with Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana and Group G with Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea. England got lucky paired with USA, Algeria and Slovenia in Group C. Hosts South Africa have a tough draw but will remain hopeful home advantage can lift them out of the group stage.

It's time we started getting to know the 32 teams who will compete at World Cup 2010, and what better way to get familiar than with a nickname? Below you'll find a list of the 32 teams, followed by their most common nickname or nicknames.

Team nicknames usually refer to the colour of the shirt (eg the Azzurri or Les Bleus) or some element of the football association crest (eg The Three Lions).

"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.

In October, Puma unveiled the 2010 football kits for the eleven African teams it sponsors: Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Egypt, Tunisia, Namibia, Morocco, Angola, Senegal and Togo. At that time, Puma also announced the signing of Algeria FA with Les Fennecs (The Desert Foxes) becoming part of the Puma football portfolio from January [.

The draw is over. The results are in. And the US has a real shot at making out of the group stage. Here are the groups:

Group A
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B
Argentina
Nigeria
Korea Republic
Greece

Group C
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia
Group D
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E
Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G
Brazil
Korea DPR
Ivory Coast
Portugal

Group H
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

Let me rephrase what I said above: we have no excuse not to make it out of our group.

The U.S. men's national team avoided being drawn into a Group of Death, and will now face a very favorable path in the 2010 World Cup.

The Americans were drawn against a strong England side, but the rest of Group C is filled out with beatable opponents Algeria and Slovenia to give the U.

With today's announcement from FIFA establishing which teams will be in the four pots ahead of Friday's World Cup Draw, we can now focus on a more accurate attempt at a mock World Cup Draw.

In our first mock draw, the U.S. national team wound up in a group with Spain, Greece and Uruguay, which wasn't quite a Group of Death, but a tough group nonetheless.

Who got the Group of Death, who got an easy draw?

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Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
Group C: ENGLAND, United States, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

What do you make of the groups?

Date Match Time (Local/ET) June 11 South Africa vs. Mexico 4 p.m. / 10 a.m. June 11 Uruguay vs. France 8:30 p.m. / 2:30 p.m. June 12 Argentina vs. Nigeria 1:30 p.m. / 7:30 a.m. June 12 Korea Rep. vs. Greece 4 p.m. / 10 a.m. June 12 England vs. United States 8:30 p.m. / 2:30 p.

Well the US is going to Group C for next year's World Cup in South Africa and the draw is very favorable.

I'll be back later today with more thoughts on this but first here are all the groups, feel free to discuss.

Group A
-South Africa
-Mexico
-Uruguay
-France

Group B
-Argentina
-Nigeria
-South Korea
-Greece

Group C
-England
-USA
-Algeria
-Slovenia

Group D
-Germany
-Australia
-Serbia
-Ghana

Group E
-Netherlands
-Denmark
-Japan
-Cameroon

Group F
-Italy
-Paraguay
-New Zealand
-Slovakia

Group G
-Brazil
-North Korea
-Ivory Coast
-Portugal
Group H
-Spain
-Switzerland
-Honduras
-Chile

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The Dutch and Danes should move on to the knockout rounds. But don't count out Cameroon especially on African soil.
Advance - Netherlands and Cameroon

The World's most exciting, popular and costliest competition had the final draw of the Groups in South Africa which turned out to be an exciting draw that has been ideal for many but nightmares for a few. The 32 teams have been divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each. Group A naturally has the hosts [.

Group E at the 2010 World Cup features The Netherlands, Denmark, Cameroon and Japan.

This is the point at which I should just go ahead and say that I don't trust Asian soccer teams. I don't know why, but every time I think they're going to do something great it never happens. Maybe it's just me, but count me in for counting Japan out.

So FIFA officially unveiled its Seeding system for Friday's exciting/terrifying World Cup Draw, and England will be top seeds. This means we can't be drawn against the other seeds, Spain, Brazil, Holland, Italy, Argentina Germany or um, South Africa.

Apparently it was only just if FIFA had taken the Playoffs into account, France would have jumped us.

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.

Zakumi, originally uploaded by Ballacorkish.

Esa es la pregunta que se realiza medio mundo, todos esperamos con ansias este sorteo, ya habíamos hablado de los posibles rivales de la selección mexicana.

Resulta ser que México estará en el bombo 2 no en el 4 como se había dicho, aunque al parecer esto no cambiara mucho el sorteo.

At about 12:o3 p.m. EST on Friday, someone on ESPN (probably Alexi Lalas or John Harkes) will give the following monologue:

"This is the day we've been waiting for. Trying to make predictions before the draw is foolish because no one knows who's playing who. It's all about matchups! Depending on the group, the U.

It was so fun the first time, why not do it again? Especially now that we know the official pots.
Here goes:
GROUP A -- South Africa, South Korea, Ghana, Denmark
GROUP B -- Italy, Japan, Algeria, Serbia
GROUP C -- England, Honduras, Paraguay, Switzerland
GROUP D -- Brazil, Australia, Cameroon, Portugal
GROUP E -- Netherlands, Mexico, Uruguay, France
GROUP F -- Germany, United States, Nigeria, Slovakia
GROUP G -- Spain, New Zealand, Chile, Slovenia
GROUP H -- Argentina, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Greece
Obviously the group involving Mexico and the United States look to be the toughest.

Everyone is doing it so why not. I even went as far as putting all the pots together and drawing out each country one-by-one, though with paper and not little plastic balls. Since this is pure guess work its probably far from what will actually happen tomorrow afternoon.

So here we go.

That's right, Charlize Theron will have the footie world's balls in her hands today as she co-hosts the World Cup 2010 draw. The action is being covered in a live text format by all of the big news sites. The BBC coverage has plenty of content and updates quickly. Or ESPN2 viewers can watch it live on TV.

Even though David Beckham's hair is embarrassing us, we still believe. Oh, yes we believe. Image via Reuters

Were you watching? For those in a non-footy environment, we offer our condolences. Trying to explain to randoms why you are excited, flushed and hitting refresh on your computer every 40 nanoseconds can be stressful.

Around 17oo GMT we will start discovering who plays whom in South Africa this summer. The eight groups will choose one country from each pot as below.
Pot 1 (Seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (AFC, OFC & CONCACAF): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (CAF & CONMEBOL): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

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

With the football world agog and betting firms poised to revise their tips for the tournament, it seems pointless trying to guess which balls will come out of the bag.

The draw for South Africa 2010 is done. We have our eight World Cup groups and they're listed below. They're listed below for reference and discussion, and we'll add some analysis (group strength by FIFA ranking etc) as we go.

Group A:
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B:
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece

Group C:
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Group D:
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E:
Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F:
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G:
Brazil
North Korea
Cote d'Ivoire
Portugal

Group H:
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

To say the U.S. got a tough draw at the 2006 World Cup would be an understatement. Paired with European heavyweights Italy and the Czech Republic and African upstart Ghana, the Americans struggled in Germany and finished a disappointing fourth place in their group.

But it was a different story this time around for the U.

Here's the 2010 World Cup schedule for the first round of games to be played in South Africa.

All times eastern:

Friday, June 11, 2010:

South Africa v Mexico, 10am (Group A)

Uruguay v France, 2:30pm (Group A)

Saturday, June 12, 2010:

Argentina v Nigeria, 7:30am (Group B)

South Korea v Greece, 10am (Group B)

England v USA, 2:30pm (Group C)

Sunday, June 13, 2010:

Algeria v Slovenia, 7:30am (Group C)

Germany v Australia, 10am (Group D)

Serbia v Ghana, 2:30pm (Group D)

Monday, June 14, 2010:

Holland v Denmark, 7:30am (Group E)

Japan v Cameroon, 10am (Group E)

Italy v Paraguay, 2:30pm (Group F)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010:

New Zealand v Slovakia, 7:30am (Group F)

Ivory Coast v Portugal, 10am (Group G)

Brazil v North Korea, 2:30pm (Group G)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010:

Honduras v Chile, 7:30am (Group H)

Spain v Switzerland, 10am (Group H)

South Africa v Uruguay, 2:30pm (Group A)

Thursday, June 17, 2010:

France v Mexico, 7:30am (Group A)

Greece v Nigeria, 10am (Group B)

Argentina v South Korea, 2:30pm (Group B)

Friday, June 18, 2010:

Germany v Serbia, 7:30am (Group D)

Slovenia v United States, 10am (Group C)

England v Algeria, 2:30pm (Group C)

Saturday, June 19, 2010:

Ghana v Australia, 7:30am (Group D)

Holland v Japan, 10am (Group E)

Cameroon v Denmark, 2:30pm (Group E)

Sunday, June 20, 2010:

Slovakia v Paraguay, 7:30am (Group F)

Italy v New Zealand, 10am (Group F)

Brazil v Ivory Coast, 2:30pm (Group G)

Monday, June 21, 2010:

Portugal v North Korea, 7:30am (Group G)

Chile v Switzerland, 10am (Group H)

Spain v Honduras, 2:30pm (Group H)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010:

France v South Africa, 10am (Group A)

Mexico v Uruguay, 10am (Group A)

Nigeria v S Korea, 2:30pm (Group B)

Greece v Argentina, 2:30pm (Group B)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010:

Slovenia v England, 10am (Group C)

Algeria v United States, 10am (Group C)

Australia v Serbia, 2:30pm (Group D)

Ghana v Germany, 2:30pm (Group D)

Thursday, June 24, 2010:

Paraguay v New Zealand, 10am (Group F)

Slovakia v Italy, 10am (Group F)

Denmark v Japan, 2:30pm (Group E)

Cameroon v Holland, 2:30pm (Group E)

Friday, June 25, 2010:

North Korea v Ivory Coast, 10am (Group G)

Portugal v Brazil, 10am (Group G)

Chile v Spain, 2:30pm (Group H)

Switzerland v Honduras, 2:30pm (Group H)

Related posts:

1. Fox Soccer Channel Announces TV Schedule For World Cup Qualifiers Fox Soccer Channel has announced its TV schedule for the.

France's odds of winning the World Cup have been cut from 16/1 to 12/1 after landing a stomach churningly handy draw by landing in host nation South Africa's group A. England have also seen their odds tumble to 11/2 third favourites from 6/1 after landing in a group with the USA, Algeria & Slovenia. Paddy Power said, [.

The groups for the South Africa 2010 World Cup have been drawn and it looks to be a fantastic world cup, in the group stages we'll have fixtures like England-USA, Germany-Ghana, Netherlands-Cameroon, Brazil-Portugal, and one of my favorites, Spain against Chile.
Check out the groups below and let us know what you think of them by commenting below.

For our SoundOff today, now that the WC draw is over, we'd like your thoughts on how you think the 2010 World Cup is going to pan out. Specifically, who do you think will...

1. ...be the two teams to make it out of the group stage in each group, A-H? (Groups listed at the bottom)

2.

In case you weren't already aware, the draw for the 2010 World Cup finals took place in Cape Town a matter of hours ago. Here are the groups it conjured up:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
My only real reaction now is commiserations to Côte d'Ivoire, Africa's finest handed a desperately tough draw for the second World Cup running.

So here is the draw in full...

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

It has developed into some kind of a tradition that every year, when the African Cup of Nations takes place in January, Chelsea come out moaning about the effect it will have on their team with a number of players leaving their club duty to represent their countries in it's continent's most important competition.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has announced its five man shortlist for the 2009 African Footballer of the Year award. The five players (in alphabetical order) are: Didier Drogba (Cote d'Ivoire & Chelsea) Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon & Internazionale/Barcelona Michael Essien (Ghana & Chelsea) Seydou Keita (Mali & Barcelona) Yaya Toure (Cote d'Ivoire & Barcelona) CAF has profiles of all five [.

Football, football, everywhere there is football, and finally, after three agonising days, footballing of the Arsenal kind has arrived again. The very last Premier League match of the calendar year would you believe?
From Saturday, we have lost Cesc and I'm assuming Denilson as well, but we've gained Song who happens to hail from Cameroon, the most wonderful country in the world.

While we don't know the exact pots in Friday's World Cup draw in South Africa we do have a pretty good guess of where FIFA could go with them. Based on the ESPN video I posted here yesterday below are the four pots.

POT 1-Brazil, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Italy, Germany, South Africa

POT 2- Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia, Greece, Slovakia, Serbia, Switzerland

POT 3- Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria

POT 4- USA, Mexico, Honduras, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand

ESPN is figuring the South American sides will be paired with the African sides and the CONCACAF sides will go with the Asian ones.

POT 1
Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain
POT 2
Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Honduras, Mexico, United States, New Zealand
POT 3
Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
POT 4
Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland

FIFA confirmed the composition of the pots for the Final Draw on Friday. They are as follows: Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England Pot 2: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras Pot 3: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay Pot 4: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland So in the end, the makeup of the pots is exactly what MARCA leaked out three weeks ago.

Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England join hosts South Africa
Pot 2: Asia (Australia, Japan, Korea DPR, Korea Republic), North, Central America and the Caribbean (Honduras, Mexico, USA) and Oceania (New Zealand)
Pot 3: Africa (Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria) and South America (Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay)
Pot 4: the remaining European teams (Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland)
South Africa will be automatically positioned as A1; the other seeded teams will be drawn into the other groups B-H, but will always be in position "1" of their group
Groups will be drawn from A to H and the positions in the group will be drawn for Pots 2 to 4
FIFA says "Geographical criteria will also be respected, meaning that no two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group).

FIFA announced today that, for Friday's World Cup draw. Previous pot predictions had France in the top pot over the Netherlands. Had FIFA gone with rankings after October France would have been in the top pot over England.

The US has been seeded in Pot 2 along with the rest of the CONCACAF teams and Asian teams.

The Final Draw will be held Friday, Dec. 4, in Cape Town, South Africa, and will air live at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and live at 11 a.m. ET on Univision

As the eighth seed, England will avoid Spain and Brazil, the top two seeds in the group stage as well as Germany, Netherlands, current holders Italy, Argentina (yes, that Maradona belly flop was a bad dream), and South Africa (a bit laughable but that is one of the perks of being hosts).