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'Group of death' feared World Cup draw could pit England vs. Germany againPosted: Thursday November 29, 2001 11:29 AM
BUSAN, South Korea (AP) -- Saturday's draw for next year's World Cup could bring England and Germany together again. In theory, they could be joined by Uruguay and Nigeria. That possible but unlikely scenario would create a "group of death" that would have teams with six World Cup titles between them and an Olympic champion. While FIFA insists that it will be an "open and pure" draw, the governing body of world soccer is quietly making sure that attractive, crowd-drawing teams are evenly distributed among the two hosting nations, South Korea and Japan. Germany is seeded, England is not and that's how they could end up in the same group. England won 5-1 in Germany in their qualifying group and finished ahead of the three-time champion, but Germany was seeded on the basis of its past record. To determine the seeded teams, FIFA used past World Cup records and its ranking system as the measuring stick and England came up short, despite being ranked one place above Germany as No. 10 team in the world. But Germany won the title in 1990 and reached the quarterfinals in 1994 and 1998, and had a better ranking than England over the last three years. England's only World Cup title came in 1966. England and Germany faced each other also in Euro 2000 and recent draws often have put their clubs against each other. If it avoids Germany, England could end up against two-time champion Argentina, or title holder France. Argentina, ranked No. 2 behind France by FIFA, is the bookmakers' favorite and definitely looks like the team to beat with stars Gabriel Batistuta, Claudio Lopez, Hernan Crespo, Pablo Aimar, Juan Sebastian Veron, Mathias Almeyda and Ariel Ortega in the lineup. Brazil also has plenty of stars shining in their European clubs but struggling when they put on the national colors. Brazil was the only the fourth South American team to qualify. And will Ronaldo ever be fit again? Even Pele, the former great, doesn't think his nation is a favorite, although it is a record four-time champion. After giving automatic seedings to France and co-hosts Japan and South Korea, FIFA has given the remaining five slots to Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Spain and Germany, meaning that none of them could end up facing each other in the first round of next year's event. France, with superstar Zinedine Zidane still in command of a lineup little changed from 1998, will head Group A and play its matches in South Korea, kicking off the 32-team, 64-match tournament May 31 in Seoul's new soccer stadium. South Korea will head Group D and Japan is top of Group H. The groups of the other five seeded teams will be decided by the draw in this South Korean port city. The next pot contains 11 non-seeded European teams such as 1998 bronze medalist Croatia, England and the star-studded Portugal led by Real Madrid's Luis Figo. It also has rookie Slovenia and sides no one likes to face, such as Russia and Denmark. Belgium, Ireland, Poland, Sweden and Turkey -- back for the first time since 1954 -- complete the pot. FIFA will make sure at the draw that no group ends up with three European teams. Pot Three contains Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, China and Saudi Arabia. China qualified for the first time under Yugoslav coach Bora Milutinovic, who has taken four different nations to the finals before. FIFA has decided to put China in a group located in South Korea for "geographic and economic" reasons -- most likely to help boost ticket sales in South Korea. That means Saudi Arabia will be based in one of the groups playing in Japan. The fourth pot contains African qualifiers Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia, plus the United States, Costa Rica and Mexico. Cameroon is the reigning Olympic champion and put the African continent on the soccer map when it stunned defending champion Argentina in the opening match of the 1990 World Cup and went on to reach the quarterfinals, only narrowly losing to England. Nigeria boasts some of the world's most spectacular talent, Mexico is ranked above England by FIFA and the Americans will be seeking to improve on their last-place finish in 1998, when they lost all three matches, scored one goal and conceded five.
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