U.S. Awaits Draw

The United States men’s soccer team will find out today if it is a No. 3 seed for the World Cup draw, and England will learn if it’s one of the eight top-seeded teams.

Defending champion Brazil and host France are guaranteed two of the eight No. 1 seeds, and Germany, Italy and Argentina appear assured of top seeds under any system the World Cup organizing committee adopts.

FIFA will split the 32 World Cup qualifiers into eight four-team groups during Thursday’s draw. To prepare for the draw, the organizing committee will assign each nation to one of four “pools” - for No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 seeds. Each group for the tournament, to be played in 10 French cities from June 10-July 12, will have a team from each pool, theoretically making each group of relatively equal strength.