A: South Africa, North Korea, Chile, Serbia
B: Holland, South Korea, Algeria, Slovenia
C: Argentina, Mexico, Ivory Coast, France
D: England, Honduras, Ghana, Denmark
E: Italy, USA, Nigeria, Slovakia
F: Germany, New Zealand, Paraguay, Portugal
G: Brazil, Japan, Uruguay, Greece
H: Spain, Australia, Cameroon, Switzerland

group c is death, if death could die twice.

A: South Africa, Japan, Uruguay, France
B: Germany, Australia, Nigeria, Slovakia
C: Spain, New Zealand, Ivory Coast, Denmark
D: Argentina, Honduras, Ghana, Greece
E: England, North Korea, Algeria, Portugal
F: Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, Slovenia
G: Holland, USA, Paraguay, Serbia
H: Italy, South Korea, Chile, Switzerland

I’m really trying to imagine a group in which I would feel good about the US reaching the knockouts. I’m not coming up with much unless we can draw the hosts. I think I’d also like to stay away from the other Africans. Give me one of the unseeded South Americans. All in all, not feeling very optimistic about Friday. Though it would be hard to get worse than ’06.

Group A: Germany, Australia, Nigeria, Portugal
Group B: South Africa, South Korea, Uraguay, Serbia
Group C: Italy, Japan, Ivory Coast, Slovakia
Group D: Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Switzerland
Group E: Spain, New Zealand, Algeria, Denmark
Group F: England, North Korea, Chile, France
Group G: Holland, Honduras, Cameroon, Switzerland
Group H: Argentina, United States, Ghana, Slovenia

I can’t see many surprises here. The big question is, obviously: which manager is less incompetent, Diego or Bob? Who finishes second behind Ghana? Other than that, I don’t really have a group of death; every group has a clear winner and maybe two teams fighting it out for the right to lose in the first knockout round.