World Cup - Top 8 Seeds Named

Hosts Germany and defending champions Brazil were named among the top eight seeds for the World Cup finals as expected on Tuesday, along with England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina and Italy.

The rest of the draw, arranging all 32 teams into eight 4-team groups, happens Friday.

In a rather complicated preliminary, FIFA places the teams into “pots” before the final draw, primarily to ensure geographic variety in the groups. Thus, for example, no final group will have more than two European teams.

The United States probably doesn’t care too much which of the top eight seeds it faces. Although certainly we could beat Mexico before we could defeat Brazil or Germany or Italy. I’m not sure if the “pot” system precludes the U.S. from being drawn into Mexico’s group.

If the U.S. is to advance, it must finish at least second in its group. As noted, a first-place finish is improbable. So, what is much more important is the relative strength of the other two competitors in the group. A group composed of Argentine, the US, and two fairly strong European teams would be awful. But if we were drawn with Mexico, a European team, and an Asian team, that wouldbe far more desirable.

More on Friday.

Comments

  1. Roxanne wrote:

    I saw a couple of games in the last World Cup. US vs. Korea and the Turkey vs. Senegal QF. It was my first exposure to non-schoolyard soccer.

    Posted 06 Dec 2005 at 9:57 am

  2. Babaganoosh wrote:

    I’m pretty sure that the pot does in fact, exclude us from Mexico’s group.

    Posted 06 Dec 2005 at 11:36 pm

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