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Whatever the draw, Brazil is the favorite to win
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-05 09:34
South Korea may have reached the semifinals at home in 2002, but it didn't
win a game in the previous two World Cups and is ranked 29th, the worst of any
team in the top group. It also had the lowest point total among Asia's four
automatic qualifiers.
Conversely, the Netherlands finished fourth in 1998 and is ranked third by
FIFA. The Dutch also finished with the most qualifying points of any team in
Europe (32) and are one of only five teams on the continent to go through
qualifying undefeated (10-2-0).
Swapping South Korea and the Dutch would conform to FIFA's world view. The
only possible hitch: FIFA vice president Chung Mong Joon is on both the World
Cup and FIFA executive committees, and he's South Korean.
Croatia is ranked 20th and, other than South Korea, is the second-lowest
ranked team in the top group. But the next three candidates for promotion are
Mexico, England and Sweden.
Europeans on the World Cup committee _ there are 13 among the 31 members,
including the chairman _ are unlikely to approve moving up the Mexicans. And
replacing one European team with another by passing two CONCACAF teams with
higher rankings (Mexico at No. 7 and the United States at No. 8) may not be
worth the fight.
More likely is elevating the second-ranked Czechs out of the last pot and the
10th-ranked Portuguese out of the third pot into the second seeds. Even though
the Czechs had to beat Norway in a playoff to get to the World Cup, leaving them
in the last group would be unfair to them and the rest of the field.
Similarly, Portugal finished second to the Greeks at last year's European
Championship and had the second-highest points total among European qualifiers
with a 9-3-0 record.
If the Czechs and Portuguese are moved up, that would displace two teams from
the second pot. The three most likely candidates are Paraguay, Japan and Serbia.
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