South Africa - World Cup 2010 draw - the probable pots

Ok so I, like many many others out there, decided to have a little fun an did a mock group draw, rather than attempt another exercise in fantasy world I wanted to look at what could and should be the pots and the teams that those in Pot 1 would want to avoid and those they would rather face before the actual draw happens this Friday.

Again, here are what the Pots should look like -

Pot one (seeds): Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, hosts South Africa and France.

Pot two (rest of Uefa): Denmark, Greece, Holland, Portugal, Slovenia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland.

Pot three (AFC + Concacaf): Australia, New Zealand, Honduras, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, United States.

Pot four (CAF + rest of Conmebol): Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Nigeria, Uruguay.

Clearly the weakest nation from the first pot is South Africa (let us refrain from any Domenech and France jokes for a few). The host nation could be the weakest since....Japan in 2002. Now Japan did make it out of the group stages that World Cup, finishing first of their group but losing in the first knock out game to Turkey. However, depending on how the groups fall, South Africa could become the first host not to make it out of their group. All the other nations in Pot 1 could go deep in the tournament...well assuming France is led by a real manager otherwise they will go 0-3.

Pot 2 - clearly you want to avoid the Dutch. They are always a tough team. Of course sometimes they resemble a Domenech led team - bags of talent no leadership from the manager. Portugal is also an interesting nation, one of the semi finalists from the last World Cup they have one of the best players in the world - Ronaldo - have bags of talent as well yet sometimes disappoint in big tournaments. None of the other teams would be easy, however Slovenia might be the "easiest" of the lot. Although I am not sure how Greece will do, either they will play their boring defensive minded football that won them the Euros in Portugal and challenge for the knock out stage, or go down in 3 games.

Pot 3 - this is a very interesting mix. The Mexicans, Australians and Americans are the cream of this crop. Although much depends on which Mexican side shows up. The US cannot get off to a poor start otherwise they will fade quickly. I do not fear the South Koreans as much as their record would indicate. I think that outside of playing in Asia, the South Koreans are not as formidable as one would expect. The weakest side are their northern neighbors - North Korea - although do not forget what happened in 1966 - beat Italy 1-0 and then had a 3-0 lead on Portugal only to fall 5-3 and lose out on a spot in the 1/2 finals.

Pot 4 - Where the steel of Africa resides - Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana will all pose teams great headaches. All these nations are formidable. It would be interesting to see Algeria and France in the same group...that would have lots of drama! None of the South American nations should be underestimated as well, all of which will contend for a spot in the knock out stage. The weakest remains the Algerians, although drawn against France and that would be scary for Les Bleus. The strongest to me are the Ivory Coast, although they sometimes underwhelm based on what they should be.

A great group of death would be Brazil - Holland - Mexico - Ivory Coast...finally get Brazil some difficult group matches. The worst possible group: South Africa - Slovenia-New Zealand - Algeria...

We will all see what unfolds in a few days!