FIFA World Cup 2014 Draw Pots Announced: Mexico And United States In Pot 3

With the official World Cup 2014 draw set to take place on Friday, December 6, FIFA recently confirmed the pots leading up to the highly anticipated event. Though unbalanced pots currently exist - due to the fact that nine teams landed in Pot 4 and seven sit in Pot 2 - each of the four pots will have an even total of eight teams once the official international team draw takes place. Of the 32 teams in the tournament field, 8 earned top seeding while the remaining 24 international squads were put in their respective pots based on sports criteria and geographic location, according to ESPN.

Thanks to earning convincing qualifying playoff victories, Mexico and Portugal will have a spot at the 2014 Brazil games. Placed in Pot 3 alongside the United States, Costa Rica and Honduras - the three teams that qualified ahead of them in CONCACAF - Mexico and head coach Miguel Herrera hope to earn a favorable draw heading into the summer. With plenty of work still left to do after earning the country's sixth-straight tournament berth, El Tri will undoubtedly need to tighten up significant offensive issues that hampered them throughout qualifying. Portugal on the other hand, will be viewed as a tough opponent come the start of the World Cup. Thanks to the continued dominance of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese National team will certainly be capable of knocking off talented teams, even if they land a tough spot after Friday's selection.

Pot 1 of the 2014 World Cup includes the top eight teams in the field. Each international club in this grouping earned seeding heading into the field and every one of these squads will be looked upon as favorites to advance deep in the field. Host Brazil will be among the expected teams to succeed while Spain (2010 World Cup champions), Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Belgium and Switzerland all stand as formidable clubs no matter where they land in the eight possible draw destinations.

Pot 2 is comprised of teams from African and South American nations. Headlined by a talented Ivory Coast club, multiple teams from this group possess the talent to compete at a high level and it is not totally out of the question that IC, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile and or Ecuador grow into one of the surprise teams at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Alongside CONCACAF representatives USMNT, Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica in Pot 3 sit the remaining Asian teams. Japan - led by Manchester United star Shinji Kagawa - finished in the round of 16 at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa but are poised for a deeper run this time around. If Japan is unable to represent this group at a high level perhaps Iran, South Korea or Australia will be able to make a charge. Though Mexico struggled to qualify out of the CONCACAF Hexagonal, Miguel Herrera's squad will still be tough, especially if they're able to return to strong form while the United States has high expectations after a very impressive qualifying slate and CONCACAF Gold Cup championship.

The fourth and final pot is made up of European teams. England, Croatia, Bosnia, Italy (2006 World Cup champions), Greece, Netherlands (2010 World Cup runner-up), Portugal, Russia and France (2006 World Cup runner-up) help to create an extremely talented pot and even though this grouping will ultimately be split up come the draw, the nine European nations won't sneak up on anyone come next summer.

FIFA's official World Cup draw will begin on Friday, December 6 at 10:50am, ET.

Image courtesy of Filipe Matos Frazao via Shutterstock.com

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