The 2006 World Cup draw has been set. The US is in a rather tough Group E with Italy, Czech Republic and Ghana. Host Germany should have a relatively easy road to the next round. Costa Rica, Ecuador and Poland round out Group A.

Group B is no picnic with England playing Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago and Sweden.

Group C should be exciting as Argentina will meet with the Netherlands, as well as Ivory Coast and Serbia & Montenegro. The  Dutch have to be considered among the top favorites to win the whole thing this summer.

Group D features Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal. I'd watch for Iran to make some noise here, and for Mexico to sneak out of the group into the next round as well. It's tough to bet against Portugal but....

Group F comprises Brazil, Croatia, Australia and Japan.

Group G seems like a walk in the park for the French squad. They will match up with Switzerland Korea and Togo.

The last group, Group H features Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.

As is to be expected the USA bashing has already begun on message boards across the globe. We'll see. There may be some upset Italy fans when all is said and done.

Here are my humble predictions for the first round:

A: Germany & Costa Rica

B: England and Sweden

C: Argie & Netherlands

D: Mexico & Iran

E: Czech Republic & USA

F: Brazil & Croatia

G: France & Korea

H: Spain & Ukraine

I've been wrong before, and I'm sure fans of Portugal and Italy think I'm wrong again.

I'm looking forward to 2006: first, the winter Olympics in Turin, The World Baseball Classic, the 2006 World Cup, the Tour de France sans Lance...  should be fun.