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Every four years the world comes together to celebrate soccer (or football), the sport we all love. In 2014, the country that seems to dominate the sport every generation, Brazil, gets to host the World Cup. But before any game in the 2014 edition can happen, the 32 countries that have qualified must be drawn into the groups, which will take place this Friday, December 6 at 10:30 A.M. central time.
I thought it would be fun to do a mock draw by following the rules and the pots laid out by FIFA. An explanation of how FIFA determines which teams are placed in which pots and how the draw is conducted can be found on Goal.com.
Below is how I performed my mock draw:
- First I put the 4 seeded South American teams together and drew Colombia as the South American team to be drawn with one of the 9 European teams from Pot 4.
- I then drew one of the 9 teams from Pot 4 to be placed in Colombia's group, that team was Russia.
- I then drew the rest of Pot 2's teams into the remaining groups, then drew Pot 3, and then Pot 4.
Here are the results of my mock draw once I completed the process:
Group A - Brazil, Ecuador, Japan, and France
Group B- Colombia*, Russia*, Costa Rica, and Portugal
Group C- Uruguay, Ghana, Iran, and Greece
Group D- Argentina, Nigeria, Mexico, and Croatia
Group E- Germany, Cameroon, Australia, and Italy
Group F- Spain, Cote d'Ivoire, USA, and England
Group G- Belgium, Algeria, Honduras, and Bosnia-Herzegovina
Group H- Switzerland, Chile, South Korea, and Netherlands
Yes, that is right, the USA was drawn into a proverbial group of death. In my opinion, there is no way the Americans progress out of the group stage considering they play Spain, the defending champions; England, the tough but perennial underachievers; and Cote d'Ivoire, an African powerhouse.
There are a few match-ups in my draw that are pretty tasty - Brazil vs. France is intriguing and Germany vs. Italy pits two perennial European powers against each other. What do you think of my draw? Are you happy with the results or do you really wish the Americans were in a cupcake group like Honduras?
