Tomorrow marks yet another milestone in the South Africa 2010 World Cup journey. At exactly 20oohrs local time at the Cape Town conventional centre the FIFA group stages draw will take place.
The seeding for this draw was based on the FIFA/CocaCola October 2009 rankings with Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England and hosts South Africa being seeded in pot one.
France missed out in this category due to their controversial win over Ireland in the qualifying process. Thierry Henry’s blatant handball which helped in France scoring the all important equalisier has proved to be a thorn in FIFA’s flesh with many pundits calling for a replay to at least restore the world football governing body’s credibility.
Pot 3 contains the rest of the African contenders with top ranked African team Ivory Coast leading the charge. With many fans eagerly awaiting this draw, there is bound to be mixed reactions when it is finally released.
I believe Africa’s contenders have a great chance of progressing further than the Quarter finals this time round. Looking at the calibre of players that continent possesses, i am than certain that an appearance in the finals is possible. The likes of Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o and Micheal Essien definitely have to be their best come June 11 2010. As for now, we can only wait and see how the draw turns out.
