The Socceroos are set to go in a pot alongside nations from CONCACAF and the AFC when the 2014 FIFA World Cup draw takes place on 6 December.
The Socceroos are set to go in a pot with Costa Rica, who they overcame 1-0 this week, alongside other nations from CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation when the 2014 FIFA World Cup draw takes place in the Brazilian state of Bahia on 6 December.
With New Zealand unable to overturn their 5-1 deficit against Mexico on home soil and Uruguay maintaining their 5-0 aggregate advantage against Jordan yesterday, the 32 qualifiers for next year-s tournament in Brazil have now been finalised.
FIFA are yet to confirm the process that will decide the grouping but based on precedent there will be one pot of seeds consisting of hosts Brazil and the seven highest-seeded nations, (based on October's FIFA rankings) and three pots based on geographical considerations. The world football governing body will formally announce the precise format of the draw on 3 December following a meeting of their delegation.
The implications of this are that Australia will be drawn to play against either Brazil or one of the top seven teams in the world, alongside one of Europe-s powerhouses and a country from South America or Africa, or France (as the lowest ranked European team).
Australia was the second country to book their place for next year-s tournament, (after Japan and discounting hosts Brazil), however they will go into the draw as the second lowest ranked nation to have qualified. A potential “Group of Death” could see Ange Postecoglou's men face the likes of Brazil, Netherlands and Chile, while a more favourable draw would pit us against Switzerland, Cameroon and Algeria.
Socceroos nemesis Uruguay skip straight from being the last nation to qualify to the seeded pot by virtue of their world ranking. Meanwhile Ukraine and Sweden are the only nations ranked in the world-s top 25 not to qualify after they lost-out in their European play-offs this week.
New Zealand were the only nation to go through the 2014 edition undefeated and yet Oceania will not be represented in Brazil after the All Whites lost out to Mexico this week. The Kiwi-s faint hopes of qualifying were effectively killed off by a first half hat-trick from Mexico-s Oribe Peralta. The All Whites staged a spirited comeback in the second half but went down 4-2 on the night and 9-3 on aggregate.
The Socceroos will go into the World Cup draw full of optimism after accounting for world No.31 Costa Rica in Sydney this week. With a determination that our standard of play will only improve ahead of Brazil, Ange Postecoglou will no doubt be out to surprise a few nations on the international stage. Regardless of this the eyes of the world will be on Brazil when the lottery for the biggest sporting event on earth is drawn in just over a fortnight-s time.
The draw: Probable pots
Pot 1 (seeds) Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland
Pot 2 (Concacaf, Asia) Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, USA, Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea
Pot 3 (South America, Africa + lowest-ranked European team) Chile, Ecuador, Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, France (21)
Pot 4 (Europe) Bosnia-Herzegovinia, England, Italy, Russia, Netherlands, Portugal, Croatia, Greece.
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NEXT UP: The Final Draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil - Saturday 7 December 3am AEDT