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Australia's Tim Cahill celebrates after scoring the first goal for Australia during the World Cup qualifying soccer match between Australia and Qatar at the Brisbane stadium in Brisbane, Australia, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008. AP Photo/Tertius Pickard
Craig Moore wants a chance at redemption against Italy; pundits are pondering an Ashes-type match-up with England; and our South American nemesis, Uruguay, could loom once again, seeking revenge. The possibilities thrown up by the World Cup draw are teasing us as we wait and speculate.
The focus of the draw will inevitably be in terms of relative ease and difficulty for the Socceroos: which nations would give us a better chance of emerging from the group stage.
Obviously the dream draw in this regard is to be grouped with hosts South Africa, bypassing the European and South American giants in pot one; while avoiding pot four inhabitants Portugal and France will likely mean the Socceroos avoid a potential group of death.
But let’s look at the possible group stage opponents from a different perspective.
Let’s look at the three Socceroos matches as another opportunity for Australian football to penetrate the mainstream, and perhaps its consciousness, as it did in 2006, that comes along once every four years, with knock-on effects for the A-League and beyond.
Remember the scenes in pubs and cities across Australia in 2006?
Which opponents, therefore, would galvanise the Australian public, football and non-football fans alike, helping to recreate or topple the hysteria caused by the last World Cup.
From the seeded countries in pot one, England is the dream ticket.
In the tradition of the Ashes, a clash with the “mother country” would be the most likely match to tempt non-football fans to watch with its cultural and historical connotations, particularly when you consider over 30 percent of Australians have English ancestry, according to the Census.
For football fans, it would pit the stars of the most popular overseas league amongst Australians, the EPL, against our home-grown stars.
Aside from England, only a clash with New Zealand, with its A-League stars, would be as tempting. But with New Zealand in the same pot as Australia, a dream match with our Tasman neighbours is sadly unlikely.
From the pot three nations, South American rivals Uruguay would have the most appeal.
The two nations will be indefinitely linked by the consecutive qualification playoff drama that they shared, and with a genuine rivalry having been developed, there will be real meaning and feeling in the clash, particularly if we face them in a do-or-die scenario in the final match of the group stage, a la Sydney November, 2005.
From pot four, Portugal and France will provide plenty of star power, particularly a match-up with Cristiano Ronaldo, but a clash with Greece will be immensely popular with the huge number of Greeks who now call Australia home.
Like Australians of Italian descent enjoyed four years ago, the Greek communities across Australia would create a great spectacle on the night of the match.
Remember the scenes on Lonsdale Street in Melbourne when an unfancied Greece claimed Euro 2004?
Imagine what a Greece versus Australia World Cup clash would be like.
The ideal group in terms of marketability is thus: England, Australia, Uruguay and Greece.
What emerges from the pots in South Africa remains to be seen, and the excitement is building for the draw to be held in the early hours of our Saturday morning.
The World Cup draw highlights the tournament’s status as the world’s greatest sporting event.
What other sporting event generates so much discussion, speculation and excitement in a mere draw?
Let that discussion continue as we await the Socceroos’ fate.
The official pots for the 2010 FIFA World Cup draw:
Pot 1 (seeds)
South Africa, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, Argentina, Holland.Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America)
Australia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.Pot 3 (Africa and South America)
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay.Pot 4 (Europe)
France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.