The World Cup draw was held today in South Africa to determine the 8 groups of 4 teams, and here are the results:

Group A:
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B:
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece

Group C:
England
USA
Algeria
Slovenia

Group D:
Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

Group E:
Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

Group F:
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Group G:
Brazil
North Korea
Cote d’Ivoire
Portugal

Group H:
Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

So the "Group of Death" appears to be Group G, with Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal all having excellent teams. The U.S got off pretty lucky, in my opinion. England will be the favorites to easily win this group, but the top two teams in each group move on to the elimination stages and the U.S will be expected to finish ahead of both Algeria and Slovenia. If they finish second in Group C, the U.S will play the winner of Group D- likely Germany.

What are your thoughts on the 2010 World Cup? Apparently U.S fans have purchased the most tickets of any country so far, though that will surely change as the tournaments gets closer. I'm personally very excited to see England v. USA, which could feature a Donovan- Beckham face off and will likely be the only time I root against the great Wayne Rooney. Just for kicks, I'm going to predict England to shut up the critics and finally win the whole thing, with the United States upsetting Germany in the round of 16 but going down to the Brits in the next round. Look for Cameroon to get further than expected with upsets over Italy and perhaps even the Netherlands, and definitely tune in for a possible "elite 8" match up of Spain and Brazil.