Is on now on SBS if you are up late. They are about to announce the pools.
http://www.fifa.com/live/competitions/worldcup/finaldraw/index.html

I'm not sure how it works but I would love to see a game versus England :P

edit: Aus vs nazis = first game.

Aus, serbia, germany, ghana.

Wtf how did New Zealand make the world cup?

yes NZ is in Group F with italy and paraguay, slovakia

New Zealands won last month ago on a play-off.

Gees Check out group G

Rough as guts.

Sheesh England has it easy with USA, Solvenia and Algeria :/

Nigeria FTW!

I reckon that's a top group for us.

Germany are a mixed bag - their 2006 team players aren't performing (in general). It will be interesting to see what their line up is.

Serbia is always tough, but that's a great team to have in for some local rivalry since we have a lot of Serb expats here.

Ghana you just never know. Those sorts of teams can always whip something up on the day if they get a bit of confidence up. In football sometimes the underdog is better off.

Anyway, great draw! We missed the powerhouse countries like Brazil, Italy, France. So that's a win.

^ what he said.

I think it's not a bad draw. Germany are defo not in great form - they almost had to go to play offs to qualify, just sneaking ahead of Russia in the end. I don't think we could beat them, but a draw or a 1 goal loss would be a good result. Then, a win against Serbia (very doable) and a draw against Ghana (we beat them 1-0 a year or two ago in London) or vice versa, and we could be on our way into the next round.

Group G will have some fantastic games. NZ have an outside chance, and England have been gifted the easiest draw of all.

usa dont do too bad, could be an upset there v england.

Ours could be worse ... correct me if I'm wrong but top 2 from each group make it through to the next round?

I was a little surprised to see that we are the top-FIFA-ranked AFC team at the moment, ahead of Japan!

USA have something to prove as well because of their arrogant d******* coach in 2006. He was an embarrasment to the US. Every newspaper was reporting what a dick he was.

If the USA can beat Spain then they are able, on their day, to beat anyone.

That's the beauty of football, any side can win on any given day.

Yeah Bruce Arena was a dick and the US are minnows and should know it. Especially after his comments regarding our own national team. How many players do they have in decent foreign leagues again?

we have a good draw but the thing that will stop us is our coach and lack of depth. i am not a fan of pim. but i really hope i have to eat my own words.


also wtf roar releasing charlie miller. atleast keep him until the end of the season. i hope you know what you are doing ange.

yeah wtf is with that?!

Just means more game time for bitch Nichols :(

no use keeping a player who doesnt wanna play for you/train for you

hes a chub who got used to not having to train/stay in shape for the boys club that farina was running, and ange is making him train so he got pissed off - hopefully it gets rid of malcolm too, and i'd say moore will probably go too which not only opens up the marquee spot but also means game time for mckain when we sign him

The WORLD CUP is much bigger than Queensland Roar and Miller.

yeah decent draw for us.

I am seriously thinking about heading over for it.

Why you guys saying England got it easy ?

Italy has far and away the easiest draw.
No African crazy wild teams. And teams they should beat without too much stress.

Italy should go straight through, but their group does contain Paraguay who were leading the South American qualification group for quite a while. They are no easy beats.

2 teams go through
So paraguay plus someone have to beat them ...

Yep they got a good group no doubt. But England's is probably the cushiest of all.

not spain's? you look at england/italy groups and yes they are easy, but imo spain will destroy everyone in their group

We have one of the hardest groups.

Italy have it easy!
England have it easy.
Spain have it super easy... they are the favourites to win.

I feel sorry for NZ and North Korea. Both have tough groups too.

If we draw or win against Germany (possible) we can have a good shot of going through.

How do you figure Spain has it easier ? Chile and the Swiss are top 20 teams.

Paraguay is the toughest team in Italy's group and its in the 30s.

And who cares about North Korea! Ivory Coast have a tough draw for a top20 team ... They have to beat Brasil and Portugal (both top5/top10)

what obes said, ohh god I feel dirty agreeing with him.

It would have been cool to see South Korea vs North Korea :)

Maybe on paper, but it'd prove to be a s*** game of football.

Well no it would be a s*** game on paper too... but the rivalry would be good. Sort of like if Iraq played the US :P

By paper i meant a political sort of paper.

I think last time anything like that happened was USA and Iran a few world cups ago. They exchanged roses prior to the game and played like pussies. What a disappointment.

They played eachother twice in qualifying this year already. I watched one of the games - was fairly boring and uneventful. Could kinda sense they were happy to play for draws so as not to fan the flames.

hah, from the wiki

The two Koreas faced each other in a 2010 FIFA World Cup 3rd round Asian Qualification match. It was originally planned to be held in Pyongyang on March 26, 2008. The North Korean government decided that the South's national anthem would not be played, nor would the DPRK allow the South's national flag to be displayed at the game. South Korea was outraged by the decision. After three failed negotiation attempts by the South Korean football association, South Korea turned to FIFA for the official ruling. After FIFA intervention, the match was played in Shanghai, China, on March 26, 2008, and it ended 0-0.

and

In March 2005, Korea DPR entered a match with Iran with limited chances of qualifying for the World Cup finals due to poor performance in early fixtures. During the match hosted in Pyongyang, North Korean fans became enraged when the referee failed to award North Korea with a penalty kick after a controversial play near the end of the match. Demanding a penalty, they rushed Syrian referee Mohamed Kousa, who instead gave a North Korean player a red card. Bottles, stones and chairs were thrown on to the field following the play. After the match was over, North Korean fans refused to let the Iranian team leave the stadium on their team bus. The violence was so severe that riot police were forced to step in to force back the crowd [1]. Following this incident, North Korea lost its right to host the subsequent home match with Japan and the game was instead played in an empty stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. [2].

Dodgy f***ers.

I wonder if this is a good way to work it out.

Average Ranking.

Group A
South Africa (86)
Mexico (15)
Uruguay (19)
France (7)

31.75

Group B
Argentina (8)
Nigeria (22)
S Korea (52)
Greece (12)

23.5

Group C
England (9)
USA (14)
Algeria (28)
Slovenia (33)

21

Group D
Germany (6)
Australia (21)
Serbia (20)
Ghana (37)

21

Group E
Netherlands (3)
Denmark (26)
Japan (43)
Cameroon (11)

20.75

Group F
Italy (4)
Paraguay (30)
New Zealand (77)
Slovakia (34)

36.25

Group G
Brazil (2)
N Korea (84)
Ivory Coast (16)
Portugal (5)

26.75

Group H
Spain (1)
Switzerland (18)
Honduras (38)
Chile (17)

18.5

"Average Ranking" Highest to Lowest
H: 18.5
E: 20.75
C: 21
D: 21
B: 23.5
G: 26.75
A: 31.75
F: 36.25


Mongie Adjusted Values

1. G
2. H
3. E
4. A
5. B
6. D
7. C
8. F

everyone knows the soccer rankings are useless tho - its hard because teams typically only play serious games against teams in their own region, how do you compare teams from different regions?

The US have been top 10-20 for agessss but everyone knows they shouldnt be there, and for that matter arent the czech rep. in the top 10? didnt even make the world cup.

switzerland struggled to even qualify, and the players that got them to where they are in the rankings are retired/past their prime

Chile are in south america so any game they win against brazil/arg (high ranked) earn them extra ranking points, and seen as any home game in their conference is usually a win this gets them some points - they havent actually made a world cup since 1998, no idea how they are ranked so high

so really, spain's group is a bit of a cakewalk.

lets look at englands group

USA - actually cant see them even qualifying, but even still, they seem to be able to pull out an upset here and there, been so up and down at world cups though, so it depends which team rocks up

algeria - basically a home country and beat egypt to make it who took usa to the wire at the confeds cup. more used to conditions and home support cant be overlooked - be curious to see how england/usa deal with the crowds/conditions

slovenia - definitely the underdogs, but still comparable to switzerland, doubt they'll make it though


as for italy, then yeah theyve probably got it just as easy, however the way theyve been playing recently they dont seem as certain to make it through.


two groups of death are ours and definitely the brazil/portugal/ivory coast group - all gonna come down to ivory coast vs portugal game, winner of that will get 2nd and then unfortunately a game vs spain in the round of 16 - anyone who makes it through that would be deserved favourites going into quarters id say

Here the draw of Group D.
Match Date Time Venues Teams.
7 13/06 20:30 Durban Germany - Australia
8 13/06 16:00 Tshwane/Pretoria Serbia - Ghana
21 18/06 13:30 Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth Germany - Serbia
24 19/06 16:00 Rustenburg Ghana - Australia
39 23/06 20:30 Johannesburg - JSC Ghana - Germany
40 23/06 20:30 Nelspruit Australia - Serbia

GERMANY TO WIN!


NO MORE KING KAHN!

GO KLOSER!