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On December 4, the thirty-two teams that qualified for the World Cup in South Africa will be drawn into their eight, four team groups. For the majority of nations that sit in the zone between assured advancing (Brazil) and "thanks for playing" (New Zealand), this could be the tournament's decisive moment.

If you're a team like South Korea - eight years removed from a semi-final, four years after nearly advancing in Germany - you're hoping to get drawn with South Africa, the weakest of the eight teams who will be "seeded" for the draw. You're hoping that a team like Algeria gets drawn from the Africa/South America pod, and you're hoping that Greece comes out of the Europe pod.

Hold-up. Pods?

The way that FIFA determines the groups involves putting the 24 teams that are not seeded into three, eight-nation pods. These pods are determined (for the most part) by geography. On December 4, the eight non-seeded teams from Europe will be put in one pod. Each of those teams will be drawn into a different group to ensure that as few European teams as possible face each other before the knock-out round.

Africa/South America will make up another pod (where no teams from South America will be allowed to be drawn into the Brazil or Argentina groups, same for African nations and South Africa).  The final pod will be made up of CONCACAF, Asia, and New Zealand.

On Thursday's edition of Inside the Six, I hosted a mock World Cup draw.  I wanted to get people acquainted with the way the draw might work (though I simplified it a bit, for the pod), but even more:  I was curious to see what a Group of Death might look like.

And boy, were there a couple of Groups of Death:

U.S., how ya' feelin'? Yikes!  This is the type of group I've been talking about on podcasts throughout the summer.  The Yanks could play great soccer and still go home with three losses.  Would everybody be OK with that?

There is another side of the coin.  Look at Honduras's group.  The United States could have easily been put in there.  Well, not easily: 1-in-8 chance.  Still, a Group of Death is not a given for Bradley's Battalion.  There are, however, a few keys to avoiding one:

• Get South Africa.  It's almost impossible for South Africa to be in a group of death.  The strongest team they can get from the Africa/South American pot is Paraguay, so if the United States were drawn in with the Bafana Bafana, the ugliest it could get would be Netherlands, Paraguay, United States and South Africa.  Are the U.S. favored to get out of that group?  No way, but it is not close to a Group of Death.
• Target Algeria and Uruguay.  These are the two weakest teams from the Africa/South America pot, and as you can see from the groups they're drawn into, it's hard to form a relatively deep group when they are drawn in.  Algeria is part of the reason El Tri would be very happy with this draw.  Germany would be thrilled with Group D, in part because Uruguay is not Cote d'Iviore.
• Go Greek.  If there is one nation from the Europe pod the United States could, even on a bad day, beat, it's Greece.  

So what would be a best-case scenario for the United States?  South Africa, Uruguay, and Greece.  The U.S. could win that group.  They could also finish fourth (again), but with that combination, the U.S. wouldn't have to play their best soccer to advance.

But let's focus on the mock draw.  Who would you see getting out of these groups, should the balls be pulled this way?  Or, do you have any questions about how the draw works?

My picks are highlighted, above.