Sports

Soccer

U.S. faces tough road for Cup's first round

By wire services
Published December 10, 2005

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LEIPZIG, Germany - South American powers Brazil and Argentina drew strong European opponents in the first round of the World Cup on Friday. That is still better than the United States.

Defending champion Brazil will play its first match against 1998 semifinalist Croatia. Argentina wound up with powerful Netherlands in its group.

The United States, which advanced to the quarterfinals of the last World Cup in 2002, was drawn into a strong group with Italy, the Czech Republic and Ghana. Italy is the group's top seed despite being ranked 12th in the world by FIFA. The Czech Republic, meanwhile, is ranked second. (Ghana is 50th.)

"It's a very difficult group," U.S. captain Claudio Reyna said. "You have, perhaps, three teams that could have been top seeds."

The United States, which just missed being named one of the eight top seeds, opens against the Czech Republic on June12 then plays Italy on June17 and Ghana on June22.

"Please write down, "Italy is the favorite,"' Czech Republic coach Karel Bruckner said of Group E.

The tournament's first match will be host Germany against Costa Rica on June9.

Five-time champion Brazil also faces Australia and Japan in Group F.

"It's a group many will consider technically easy, but it won't be like that," Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. "We will need to be very alert."

Croatia played Brazil for the first time in August in Croatia, a 1-1 tie. And Croatian coach Zlatko Kranjcar said he is confident his team would get through to the elimination round.

"I don't think there should be any room for discontent. It's a fair group, a good group," Kranjcar said. "There are stronger groups, for sure."

Such as Group C, where Argentina must play the Netherlands, ranked No.3 by FIFA and which hoped for a top seed, the Ivory Coast and Serbia-Montenegro. Argentina failed to get past the first round in 2002 and could struggle again.

"It's a tough group. It's the toughest," said Carlos Bilardo, who coached Argentina to the 1986 title. "The good thing is that it will be defined against the Netherlands, probably the team to beat."

England was drawn in Group B with Sweden, the home country of its coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson.

"It's destiny, I suppose, Sweden again in a World Cup," Eriksson said. "I thought with statistics that we shouldn't have drawn them because we played them at the last World Cup. But that's life, and sooner or later, we have to beat them."

But the rest of that group, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, is not considered strong.

Another intriguing matchup will be Portugal and Angola in Group D. The last time they met, in an exhibition in Lisbon four years ago, four Angolans were ejected for brutal tackles and dissent, and the game was stopped with 20 minutes to play. The match was supposed to be a celebration of the long-standing ties between the European country and its former African colony.

"The meeting with Angola will be a very special moment," Portugal forward Luis Boa Morte said. "It'll be a great festival because our countries are related."

WORLD CUP GROUPS

Top two from each group advance to elimination round, and champions of the previous 17 events are in italics with number of titles in parenthesis (Nonqualifier Uruguay has won two):

GROUP A

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Germany (3)

Poland

GROUP B

England (1)

Paraguay

Sweden

Trinidad & Tobago

GROUP C

Argentina (2)

Ivory Coast

Netherlands

Serbia-Montenegro

GROUP D

Angola

Iran

Mexico

Portugal

GROUP E

Czech Republic

Ghana

Italy (3)

United States

GROUP F

Australia

Brazil (5)

Croatia

Japan

GROUP G

France (1)

South Korea

Switzerland

Togo

GROUP H

Saudi Arabia

Spain

Tunisia

Ukraine

[Last modified December 10, 2005, 00:51:18]