Yesterday, Friday, December 5th, the pairings for group stages were chosen. Teams from around the world representing their country were essentially put into a hat and drawn at random. The group stages consist of 8 groups with 4 teams in each of those groups. While no country is ever an easy country to beat with the World Cup at stake, the United States got a much easier draw than years before. With the World Cup only happening every 4 years, the stakes are extremely high. The way the group stages work are pretty simple. Each team plays the teams in their group and they get a certain amount of points whether they win or tie. At the end of the group stages, the top two teams from each group make it into the single elimination bracket. In years before the United States have been stuck with powerhouses such as Italy and Ghana. This year they literally had the luck of the draw getting put into a group with England, Algeria, and Slovenia. The games begin in late June in the 2010 host country South Africa.
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