We'll have live coverage of the draw across our website today and on our Twitter feed. Join us from noon on, or at @championsonfox. We'll also have wrapups going up after the draw is complete with lotsa news, analysis and other fun stuff.

Once again: Here in Chicago, two places will be hosting viewing parties for the draw (12ET/11CT) and, should you wish, you can catch up with me at one of them. The first is Fado on Grand and Clark in the Loop (Red Line to Grand), which will kick off festivities at 10am Chicago time. I’ll be there to answer questions, chat about your team’s chances and all sorts of other fun stuff. If you’re not in the Loop, head up to the Globe on Irving Park just east of Damen, (Brown Line to Irving Park) where my namesake is also hosting a viewing party with all kinds of stuff going on. Both locations are accessible on the El, and you can click on the links embedded here for more information.

TV THIS WEEKEND
TODAY (All times ET, picks in bold)
World Cup draw        1200    ESPN2/360/Univision
Bayern v M’Gladbach        1430    ESPN360
Guimares v Porto        1515    ESPN360

SATURDAY
Portsmouth v Burnley        0745    ESPN2
Hamburg v 1899        0930    GolTV
West Ham v Man U        1000    Setanta
Blackburn v L’pool        1000    Setanta X
Arsenal v Stoke City        1000    FSC
Brescia v Empoli        1015    RAI
Xerez v Atletico Madrid    1200    ESPN360/D
Sevilla v Valladollid        1200    GolTV
AC Milan v Sampdoria    1200    RAI
Man City v Chelsea        1230    FSC
Valenciennes v Monaco    1300    Setanta/TV5
Real Madrid v Almeria    1400    GolTV
Juventus v Inter        1445    FSC/RAI
Bordeaux v PSG        1500    Setanta
Coruna v Barca        1600    ESPND/360
Cruz Azul v Morelia        1800    Azteca
Santa Fe v Nacional        1830    GolTV
Atletico Huila v Tolima    2015    GolTV

SUNDAY
Perth v Brisbane        0400    FSC
Utrecht v Ajax            0630    ESPN360/D
RKC Waalwijk v PSV    0830    ESPN360/D
Genoa v Parma        0900    FSC/RAI/360
Koln v Bremen        0930    GolTV
Fulham v Sunderland        1000    Setanta
Everton v Tottenham        1100    FSC
Schalke v Hertha        1130    ESPN360/D
Villarreal v Getafe        1300    GolTV
Toliuca v Monterrey        1300    Telemundo
Flamengo v Gremio        1400    GolTV
Roma v Lazio            1445    FSC/360/RAI
Bilbao v Valencia        1500    ESPN360/D
Lille v Lyon            1500    Setanta
Velez v River            1700    FSC (SDD)

The World Cup draw takes place tomorrow in Cape Town, South Africa, and billions of people around the planet will be watching.

Here in Chicago, two places will be hosting viewing parties for the draw (12ET/11CT) and, should you wish, you can catch up with me at one of them.

The first is Fado on Grand and Clark in the Loop (Red Line to Grand), which will kick off festivities at 10am Chicago time. I’ll be there to answer questions, chat about your team’s chances and all sorts of other fun stuff. If you’re not in the Loop, head up to the Globe on Irving Park just east of Damen, (Brown Line to Irving Park) where my namesake is also hosting a viewing party with all kinds of stuff going on.

Both locations are accessible on the El, and you can click on the links embedded here for more information.

With that: Tons of stuff for you to read today:

DAILY READS
Funny.

Greedy.

Wal-Mart to add FIFAWC shops

Amy Lawrence on hypocrisy

Niall Quinn on the “deafening silence” of the FFF

Expansion for WWC to 24 teams

300 players under the ‘scope in fixing case

           The USA got the expected news Wednesday when FIFA announced how the World Cup draw will proceed on Friday, but it's not time to raise the white flag.

Confirmation that the USA will be in pot two alongside the the Asians, New Zealand, Honduras and Mexico effectively means that coach Bob Bradley's team could get a very difficult first round assignment next June. But, in a 32-nation field that is not filled with powerhouses, the Americans could also emerge in very good position from Friday's show.

Pot two is effectively "the home of the minnows" with none of the eight nations likely to feared when they come out of the pot. Maybe that will prove to be folly because Australia, North Korea, South Korea and the USA have all advanced beyond the first round in the past, but on today's form only the Aussies would truly be expected to give a seeded team a run for it.

The top seeds produced little surprise. One can quibble with the assignment of out-of-form Argentina to the top pot -- Portugal might argue it belonged there, instead -- but the seven nations who join host South Africa in the top row are rightly regarded as the tournament's elite.

Brazil, England, Germany, Holland, Italy and Spain join the host and the Argentines in that pot. They will avoid each other in the opening stage; you can be certain that once they are allotted into groups they will quickly scan the later stages of the tournament bracket to see when their paths should ultimately cross.

So how can the USA get the best of all possible worlds on Friday? Get drawn with the South Africans. That would have two benefits: the hosts are not one of the title contenders and it would automatically mean that the Americans could not play another African side in the opening stage.

Pot three options -- the five additional African nations plus Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay -- would then be restricted to the three South Americans, none of whom are unbeatable on neutral soil.

Pot four contains the remaining UEFA qualifiers and is a very mixed bag. Other than the Portuguese and perhaps Denmark there isn't a team in the urn that figures to make a serious title run. France is well past its peak, Serbia will be enthusiastic but remains unproven at the highest level and the remainder -- Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland -- will show up in South Africa with the accent firmly on defending.

Obviously, the draw can swing many different directions. We've outlined the best possible scenario for the States -- start with the host, then get a a break from pot four and you have a serious opportunity to do well.

The other side of the coin doesn't look as promising. Clearly, nobody would fancy getting Brazil, England or Spain out of pot one, Ghana or the Ivory Coast from pot three and Portugal or the Danes out of pot four. Should something like that happen the old cliche "group of death" could be an understatement.

Naturally we look at matters from the American perspective this morning. But it's not just those outsiders who will be playing "what if" over the next 48 hours.

A group with Brazil, France, Ghana and Australia sure wouldn't have any of those countries smiling.

Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England

Pot 2 (AFC, Oceania, CONACAF): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras

Pot 3 (CAF, CONMEBOL): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

Pot 4 (UEFA): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia

    The draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be staged Friday in South Africa.
    Wouldn't it be nice to think that the focus this week would be entirely on football?
    But, of course, it won't.
    Instead of us speculating just how the teams will be assorted into the four urns ahead of the draw we will spend much of the next 48 hours wondering how deeply FIFA will keep its head in the sand.
    There is an extraordinary meeting of the world governing body set for Wednesday. The agenda should be quite simple:
    1. How do we put television replay into the game effectively?
    2. How do we set about acknowledging that corruption has become a major headline as match-fixing becomes the focus in Europe?
    Naturally, we don't expect that to be the actual agenda.
    Instead, FIFA is going stick an official on each end line just to make sure that when players handle the ball -- see, Egypt vs. Brazil, Confed Cup or France vs. Ireland, WC qualifier -- everything but TV replay is used to make the decision.
    And don't imagine for an instant that FIFA will accept the fact that match-fixing is a major global problem as Declan Hill asserted in his book. Nope, instead I'd almost be willing to write the obligatory press release in advance: look for phrases like "isolated incidents" and "protecting the game's integrity" to appear side by side. It will be drivel, not a concerted act to deal with a serious issue.
    And don't hold your breath waiting for Ireland to be added to the field in South Africa.
    On the other hand, if somebody can get Santiago Rangers to refiile that legal claim against relegation FIFA could always toss out Chile and invite the Irish to take their place.
    Stay tuned.

DAILY READS
City tops agents’ spending list

Messi!

Sore consolation: Henry may be punished

Kyle McCarthy explains what the heck the MLSPU, MLS are arguing about.

We miss Mike Penner.

TV: (All times ET, our picks in bold)
TODAY
Triestina v Sassulolo        1430    ESPN360
Sampdoria v Livorno        1430    ESPN360/GolTV
Man U v Tottenham        1445    ESPN360
Portsmouth v Villa        1445    No TV

WEDNESDAY (Europa Cup games can be found on DTV 461-468)
Salzburg v Lazio        1300    GolTV
Levski v Villarreal        1300    DTV
Sheriff v Steaua        1300    DTV
Twente v Fenerbahce        1300    DTV
BATE v Benfica        1300    DTV
AEK v Everton        1300    DTV
Boulogne v PSG        1300    DTV
OM v Sochaux        1300    DTV
Man City v Arsenal        1445    Setanta
Blackburn v Chelsea        1500    No TV
Timisoara v Ajax        1500    DTV
Anderlecht v Dinamo Z    1500    DTV
Valencia v Lille        1500    DTV
Slavia Prague v Genoa    1500    GolTV
Celtic v Hapoel        1500    DTV
Hamburg v Rapid Vienna    1500    DTV
Xerez-Barca                 1555   ESPN360
Fluminense v LDUQ      1830   FSE
Monarchas v Cruz Azul     2155 Azteca

THURSDAY
Shakhtar v Brugge        1300    DTV
Tolouse v Partizan        1300    DTV
PSV v Sparta Prague        1300    DTV
Copenhagen v Cluj        1300    DTV
Austria Vienna v Bilbao    1300    DTV
Werder v CD Funchal        1300    GolTV
Galatasaray v Pananthin.    1500    GolTV
Ventspils v Hertha        1500    DTV
Sporting v Heerenveen    1500    DTV
Fulham v CSKA        1500    DTV
Roma v Basel            1500    DTV
Dinamo Buch v Sturm    1500    DTV
Estudiantes v Chacarita    1600    FSE
Monterrey v Toluca     2155  Telemundo

FRIDAY
World Cup Draw        1200    ESPN2/Telemundo AND FSC.com

    What a difference a central defender makes.
    Chelsea looks set to win everything it wants to this season and England may actually more than a figment of the British media's imagination next summer in South Africa thanks to the presence of one John Terry.
    Sunday the Emirates Stadium there was not that much difference between the Chelsea and Arsenal attacks although they are built differently. Chelsea finished and Arsenal didn't in large part because Terry has become the best center back in the game. He may not be as elegant as Franz Beckenbauer in Der Kaiser's best years but he spends the 90 minutes in exactly the right spot.
    Arsenal remains an elegant, but horribly incomplete side because Arsene Wenger will not -- or cannot -- understand that championships are built on being able to defend. Sunday's defeat, every bit as bad as the horrendous European Champions League humbling from Manchester United at the same stadium, virtually eliminates the Gunners from the title race.
    It also made Manchester United's pursuit of Chelsea that much more difficult and set the stage for another four-month, two horse EPL race with the other would-be's concerned with getting a top four finish. We've read that book before, I believe.
    When Wenger reviews the tapes -- if he can bear to relive the latest disaster -- he will not have any difficulty recognizing that it was often Terry' perfectly-timed tackle or header which destroyed another of his team's pretty moves. And the main thing now is that Terry is doing it without the sometimes rough edges that once characterized his game.
    How much of this is down to Carlo Ancelotti? Certainly the Italian manager knows a thing or two about defense: after all, the game he played all his life was built on the Italian premise that every team starts at the back and moves forward cautiously toward attack.
    Ancelotti, however, has not imposed a rigid defensive style on the EPL's best team. If anything, Chelsea plays with more freedom these days, liberated from the Jose Mourinho era and over whatever seemed to be the problem during the abortive Scolari regime. Guus Hiddink may have started the turn-around in his stand-in spell last year, but Ancelotti now looks like having a side with the skill and confidence to finally win a European trophy.
    Sure, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are usually the killers up front, but it is the sublime confidence of Terry at the back which defines Chelsea this season. If he can carry that form with him to South Africa even the Brazilians may need to worry about an England challenge.
    Meanwhile, Stamford Bridge should be the place to be well into May.

DAIL READS
Ireland launches unusual bid to be Team 33 (Would this help Costa Rica?)

Warner gets Brown to kowtow, now backs WC bid