With the best
The draw for the fourth FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States put African teams in unenviable positions, writes Eric Asomugha
Nigeria, making a fourth appearance in the World Cup, is in Group A with host and holders US, Sweden and North Korea. Already termed the "Group of Death", the Nigerians will face stiff opposition from the US and North Korea, the two teams they were drawn together with four years ago, as well as the powerful Swedes.
Africa's second representative, Ghana, faces China and Australia in Group D. The Ghanaians will take on the Russians for the first time.
China and Australia are highly favoured to pick up the two top spots in the group but Ghana and Russia may pull off a surprise.The draw, which took place 17 July, was held at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, before a host of football dignitaries, players, coaches and representatives from many of the participating countries. It was conducted by FIFA Deputy General Secretary Jerome Champane.
The 16 finalists, which cut across the six FIFA football regions or confederations, were divided into four groups. Group A consists of the US, Sweden, Nigeria and North Korea. Group B has Norway, France, Brazil and South Korea. Group C is Germany, Canada, Japan and Argentina while Group D includes China, Ghana, Australia and Russia.
The US faces Sweden in the opening match in Washington DC on 21 September. The final is on 12 October in Carson.
For the African representatives, Nigeria plays North Korea on 20 September before meeting the US and Sweden on 25 and 28 September respectively. Ghana takes on China on 21 September before playing Russia and Australia on 25 and 28 September respectively.
The World Cup was originally scheduled to take place in China but was moved to the US following the outbreak of SARS.
Meanwhile, in the first women's world football ranking released by FIFA, Nigeria was listed as the best African team, ranked at 23 in the world. Morocco trailed a distant 52nd and Ghana 53. South Africa and Mali are 61 and 62 respectively. Gabon, ranked 105, was the last-placed African team.
The top 10 teams in the world are the US, Norway, Germany, China, Sweden, Brazil, North Korea, Denmark, France and Italy.
The ranking, which will be updated four times a year, provides women's football with an objective yardstick for measuring the sporting performance of the growing number of national teams worldwide.
More than 3,000 international matches dating back to 1971 up to the end of June 2003 were taken into account.
