About the time today when most Americans are somewhere between lunch and their mid-afternoon snack, a drawing will be held in Germany to determine the first round groupings for the 2006 World Cup finals. This article does a nice job of describing the process and has a link for following the draw live, if you're so inclined.

The US kind of got screwed going into the draw as they did not get one of the top 8 seeds, based on a formula FIFA devised using past World Cup experience and world rankings. Mexico managed to pick one up, though, which is a little galling given that the US did better than Mexico in the last World Cup and beat Mexico in the most recent qualifying. The Netherlands also missed a seed, punishment for missing the 2002 tournament.

This still leaves the question on the best and worst draws for the US team, a question answered here. I do have some disagreements, though.

First, the author suggests that Germany would actually be a nice first round opponent, as they aren't as strong as in the past. As true as this might be, this fails to note that:

1. Even without the world beating talent of previous squads, they're still good.
2. The tournament is being played in Germany.
3. Germany will play in the largest stadiums, which I imagine will be filled with German fans.

Playing at home gives you a huge bump; look at how Japan and South Korea did in 2002. A good German team with that bump will be very hard to beat.

The best choice from among the seeded group has to be France. They failed to qualify in 1990 and 1994, and didn't get past the first round in 2002. And while plenty of French fans will be in attendance, you'd have to think that locals would at least root against the French, if not in favor of whoever they're playing.

Out of the second pot, I'd go with Angola. It's their first World Cup, and they're about as surprising a qualifier as anyone (they and Togo would probably share that award). From the third pot I suppose I'd take the Swiss, though they're close enough that they should have some fans in attendance (I also don't want to chance a repeat of our loss to Poland in 2002).

As for the draw of death, how's this for starters: Brazil, Paraguay, and the Netherlands. For fun, you could sub out Brazil and the Netherlands for Argentina and the Czechs. Heck, any of the seeded teams outside of Mexico will be tough. Sadly, we don't get a shot to play Mexico in the first round.

I would add that I'm at a loss to explain how Australia gets into group of death consideration. They've not qualified in 34 years, and made it to Germany by beating Uruguay - South America's fifth-best team - in a playoff decided by penalty kicks. I can see why England wouldn't want to play them - the English can't seem to beat Australia in any of the other sports they compete against each other in - but I really don't see why we should fear them.

(And isn't that a statement worthy of coming back to bite me in the ass?)

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed.