Whatever the draw, Brazil is the favorite to win (AP) Updated: 2005-12-05 09:34
Serbia has the worst record of anybody among the second seeds and is ranked
47th. Paraguay is ranked 30th, 15 places below Japan. Both easily could be
dropped into the third tier, which would leave one team too many in the third
seeds.
The bottom three there are Iran, Tunisia and Switzerland.
Iran is ranked 19th and qualified easily back in June. Tunisia is the only
African team not among the last group of seeds, and trying to drop it likely
would resurrect accusations of racism last loudly heard after Germany won the
vote over South Africa to host World Cup 2006.
That leaves Switzerland, which hasn't played in a World Cup since 1994, and
is the lowest-ranked side not in the last group already. Down it goes.
The only other potential land mine among the lowest group is Ukraine. It may
have been the first team from Europe to qualify, but it has never played in a
World Cup and is ranked 40th. The Ivory Coast is right behind it at No. 41.
But if those hurdles are cleared, the seedings are reset as follows:
_ Brazil, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Croatia, Argentina and the
Netherlands in Pot 1.
_ South Korea, Mexico, England, Sweden, the United States, Japan, Czech
Republic and Portugal in Pot 2.
_ Paraguay, Serbia-Montenegro, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Poland, Saudi Arabia,
Iran and Tunisia in Pot 3.
_ Switzerland, Angola, Ivory Coast, Togo, Ghana, Ukraine, Trinidad and
Australia in Pot 4.
After that, it's a matter of separating Germany into Group A, then picking
blindly until the groups are filled. FIFA's current rules would prohibit one
team from facing off against another from its region, except Europe.
So the mock draw looks like this:
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