In Buildup to Brazil, Stirring the Pots Will Leave Some Coaches Shaken
By SAM BORDEN
The World Cup draw has the anxiety of the N.C.A.A.’s Selection Sunday mixed with the confusion of the Bowl Championship Series. It is a contrived spectacle, like the N.F.L. draft, yet features the global interest (and, in some parts of the world, overall importance) of a presidential election.
The draw will take place Friday in Costa do Sauípe, Brazil. The tournament does not begin until June, but there is no denying that fortunes will be enhanced, or ruined, based on the order in which 32 tiny balls are pulled from four glass pots.
Jurgen Klinsmann, the manager of the United States team, said that he did not have a lucky coin or a rabbit’s foot and that he did not plan to spend much time dreaming about the best possible three group-stage opponents for the Americans. Klinsmann, who is in Brazil for the draw, also does not think the awards-show nature of the event — the ceremony will include three musical acts, among other celebrity appearances — is necessary.
“I’d be fine if they just emailed us and said, ‘Here’s who you got,’ ” he said.
For most coaches, however, the stress level ahead of the draw is much greater. Italy Manager Cesare Prandelli, whose team is not among the eight top seeds, acknowledged that he was nervous this week. Ange Postecoglou, who was named Australia’s manager in October, conceded that everyone in his delegation was anxious to see just how difficult the Socceroos’ task would be.
Roy Hodgson, the England manager, was a bit more pragmatic. He said he was more concerned with which cities England would play in than with the opponents, but then he invoked a fictitious movie character in describing the entire process.
“We will hope for our best, but it is like Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates,” Hodgson said. “We will open it up and see what we get, then try and digest it.”
The stakes are considerable. For most countries, the qualifying process for the World Cup stretches over two years. Once qualification is assured, it is natural to begin fantasizing about a long run through the knockout stages and the possibility — even for a minnow — of a month to remember.
The draw, then, can be akin to a cold smack in the face. When Steve Sampson, the former United States coach, saw his team drawn into a group with Germany and Yugoslavia for the 1998 World Cup, it was difficult not to be emotional.
“Privately, we were shocked and we were very disappointed,” Sampson said. “The whole postdraw interviews when you’ve got Germany as your first game? I mean, what do you say?”
Sampson added, “Any coach that says he doesn’t have a wish list is kidding himself.”
That year, as he paced the halls of a hotel in Paris the night before the draw, Sampson was hoping to face a team like Sweden or Norway, along with maybe a second-tier South American team. Instead, he got Germany, the reigning European champion; Yugoslavia, which qualified for the tournament after beating Hungary in the European playoffs, 12-1 on aggregate; and Iran.
Sampson put on a brave face and prepared his team as best he could, but the United States lost all three of its group-stage games. The Americans scored a single goal, and Sampson resigned three days after the team’s last match.
“If you’re Brazil or Spain, maybe you just don’t care that much — the group stage is about building a progression for the whole tournament,” Sampson said. “For me, and for us at that time, the draw was everything.”
It will be critical this year as well. Because of FIFA’s complex seeding and ranking system, several top teams — the Netherlands, Italy and France — are unseeded, increasing the likelihood that multiple groups will have more than one juggernaut.
Quietly, many delegations are hoping to draw less-established teams like Belgium or Switzerland as their seeded opponent, though even that will be no bargain. Quite simply, this tournament’s field — which includes 23 of the top 25 ranked teams in the world — is one of the deepest in memory.
Add the potential for significant travel between games as well as differing climates among the various host cities throughout Brazil, and the draw is precarious for even the top teams. Playing in Manaus, for example, will mean a team must travel into the Amazon and acclimate to the tropical conditions in only a few days while also preparing for the opponent.
Who will have the luck? In South Africa four years ago, the United States got a favorable draw: It faced England, Slovenia and Algeria in its group-stage games, and was the only team in the tournament that did not have to get on an airplane to travel to any of them.
In 2006, the draw was less desirable: Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic were the opponents, and the Americans did not win a game.
On Friday, Klinsmann and the 31 other coaches will learn their fate. Good draw or bad? Easy passage or the so-called Group of Death? It does not matter that the first matches are still half a year away. Somehow, Friday will feel like a win or a loss anyway.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
