I attended the gathering at Rio Tinto for the 2010 World Cup group drawings. However, to be honest my main reason for attending was the potential of winning a raffle for an official 2010 World Cup game ball. Unfortunately, luck is rarely on my side in these sorts of things. I blame Nick Rimando who was drawing out the raffle tickets. I didn’t count, but they probably gave away 3 or 4 #5 soccer balls, and maybe 10 mini-balls.
Official 2010 World Cup South Africa “Jabulani” Game Ball
2010 World Cup Groupings
(including most recent FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings)
Group A: South Africa(86), Mexico(15), Uruguay(19), France(7)
Group B: Argentina(8), Nigeria(22), Korea Republic(52), Greece(12)
Group C: England(9), USA(14), Algeria(28), Slovenia(33)
Group D: Germany(6), Australia(21), Serbia(20), Ghana(37)
Group E: Netherlands(3), Denmark(26), Japan(43), Cameroon(11)
Group F: Italy(4), Paraguay(30), New Zealand(77), Slovakia(34)
Group G: Brazil(2), Korea DPR(84), Côte d'Ivoire(16), Portugal(5)
Group H: Spain(1), Switzerland(18), Honduras(38), Chile(17)
As it turns out, the US ended up with a very good group drawing. Aside from South Africa, England was the lowest ranked seeded team. And the US is ranked higher than the other two teams in the group. Opening against England may also be a benefit to the US as seeded teams will often struggle in their opening match. The US team ended up in one of only a couple of groups in which they would likely have been considered a favorite.
