LEIPZIG, Germany (AFP) - World Cup holders Brazil and the other 31 nations competing in next year's finals will learn their first-round opponents when the draw is made in a star-studded ceremony.
Brazil, the five-time winners, will be the team no one wants to meet while host nation Germany and England are guaranteed top seedings when stars including Pele and Johan Cruyff help make the draw alongside German supermodel Heidi Klum, starting at 9.20 pm (2020 GMT).
Two-time World Cup runners-up Holland, Euro 2004 finalists Portugal and powerhouse the Czech Republic are all unseeded and so could be paired with any of the eight top seeds in the first round of matches.
The nations are divided into eight groups of four. Only the top two finishers in each group will qualify for the second round.
England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who believes his team can win the World Cup for the first time since 1966, said he feared a potentially treacherous group.
"What would be the worst draw? Holland, Australia and the United States, I think," Eriksson said.
"Holland are the best team who are not seeded and I think Australia desperately want to beat England in a big tournament, it would be a big boost for their country."
Australia return to the finals for the first time since 1974 under the guidance of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to a stunning semi-final appearance which turned football's established order on its head at the last finals in 2002.
Italy, Argentina, France, Mexico and Spain are the other top seeds and are therefore guaranteed to avoid each other in the first round.
Only three-time winners Germany and Brazil know before the draw where they will be playing, having been allocated the biggest stadiums.
Pele, the Brazilian widely regarded as the world's greatest ever player, said he believed the tournament would produce a "dream final" between Germany and Brazil, a repeat of the 2002 outcome in Japan which Brazil won 2-0.
"They are both strong teams and there is a strong possibility of that happening," Pele said.
"If I had to decide today, Brazil would be world champions. They are the big favourites but often in World Cups the favourites don't win."
World Cup debutants Angola, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Ukraine will be eagerly waiting to see who they will face when they step on to the biggest stage in football for the first time.
The opening match of the 64-game finals will take place at the futuristic new stadium in Munich on June 9 with the final on July 9 at the renovated Berlin Olympic Stadium, first built by the Nazis to host the infamous 1936 Olympics.
World football's governing body FIFA say they expect the draw to be broadcast in more than 140 countries and attract a TV audience of 320 million.
source: http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=a ... &type=lgns
