The first real step towards this upcoming World cup has happened today. We now know how the pots are arranged for the draw. We have four pots with eight nations in each. The most important pot is the first, which is the seeded pot. It is comprised of South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, and England. There are some arguments possible here. I think Brazil, Spain, Germany, Holland and South Africa are reasonable and make sense(South Africa being the Host and the Host always being in pot 1, and will be in group A as to play in the first game to open the tournament). I think there are arguments to be had over the remaining three. Italy and Argentina though having a great deal of history, have been absolutely dreadful over the past year. Italy has not played well and are dependent on the old guard and have not been bringing on the talent like Giovinco and the publicly desired Antonio Cassano. I think they are not as good as defending champions should be, however i suppose being the holders does give you a sort of right to a seeding. As for Argentina, they are not the team they are being given credit for being. They have been awful. They won their first 3 in qualifying and their last two which qualified them very narrowly, but they have only won eight of eighteen games in qualifying. Also, with the unstable Diego Maradona leading them, it is impossible to know what the team will do since you never know who is going to play. Even Messi has been invisible in the last stretch of games which is impossible to believe when you see him play for Barcelona. Finally, there is England. I know that they have been amazing, and on form they should almost be ranked in the top three, but they haven't proven anything to me. They are weak at the back as the supposed best CB in the country, Rio Ferdinand, remains out with back problems and was in poor form when he played this season for Manchester United. I think there are major concerns in the midfield since there are too many good players for too few spots. It is hard to fit in Lampard, Gerrard, Barry, Lennon, Joe Cole, Milner and any number of other solid midfielders into four spots. This doesn't even think about the possibility of Owen Hargreaves making it to fitness before the end of the season. And these problems are before we even get to the farce that is the strike pairing. Wayne Rooney is a lock, and should be, as I would argue he is in the top three strikers in the world behind only David Villa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Fernando Torres. The problem is that Capello keeps playing Emile Heskey. Though I understand his thinking, I don't agree with it. I think players like Jermain Defoe and Darren Bent should be up there with Rooney. This way, you get someone who will not only score goals, but give you a presence in the box as Rooney doesn't really play Striker, but he plays everything on the field but goalkeeper. Now I think in the end, looking at the other pots, I don't really see anyone to usurp England's place in the seeded group, however, I still, think there is at least an argument to be had with them. But who might fill the gaps left if these teams were pulled from pot one? Three teams come to mind. Ivory Coast, Ghana and the U.S. Now, please don't think I am a U.S. fan and that's where my thought comes from. I support Sweden and only Sweden. But in the case of the U.S., I think they are an underrated team. They are not quite top 10 in the world, but they are close. As for the two African teams i picked out, They are full of top players from the top leagues and who are very tough to beat even in African qualifying or in the African Cup of Nations. I think either one could be a contender to win the World Cup this time around. As for the rest of the teams in the draw, I think there are few weak teams in this cup this time as long as you ignore form(France, Italy, Argentina, and Portugal, I'm looking at you guys). But I think the teams that each country will be looking to draw in this tournament are North Korea, New Zealand and Honduras from pot 2, Algeria and Uruguay from pot 3, and Greece and Switzerland from pot 4. Not the weakest picks I've ever seen. This should at least tell us there will be an exciting tournament this summer.
The Pots as they are:
Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England
Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras
Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay
Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia
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