The World Cup 2010 Draw takes place today at noon on ESPN2. The stage will be effectively set for next summer (winter in South Africa though), and we can all begin our prognosticating. The draw is set up in four pots: one top pot of seeded teams, and the rest grouped regionally. A group can have no more than 2 European teams, and otherwise no two teams from the same continent can be drawn together. Because the host gets an automatic seed, and because South Africa is really not very good, possible draws range as widely as South Africa, Uruguay, New Zealand, and Slovakia as one group to Brazil, Ivory Coast, Mexico, and France in another. If the US can't draw South Africa as their seeded team, I'm personally pulling for Italy. We snatched a draw against them in 2006 and we had the lead against them last summer, before a cruel red card reduced us to 10 men and we lost 3-1. Either way, in all likelihood the US will be the 3rd or 4th best (most fancied?) team in a 4 team group. My one sincere hope, however, is that Algeria gets drawn into a group against their former colonizers, France, which really has some great post-colonial potential.
Here's a video of the BBC's choice for top ten all-time World Cup Goals. Enjoy.
I'm partial to all of them, but I especially love Bergkamp at #6. I remember watching this live -- it was around the last minute of the game, looked headed for overtime, I think both teams were down to 10 men, and then came this.
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