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2018 World Cup Draw: Which Teams Will Orlando City’s Yoshimar Yotún Play?
Orlando City midfielder/defender Yoshimar Yotún and his Peru teammates will learn their World Cup group-stage opponents today as the FIFA World Cup Draw is held in Russia (10 a.m. ET, FS1). While I’m not a big draw watcher, especially when my team isn’t involved, this is kind of a big event as we approach next year’s World Cup and many of you probably have some level of interest.
With that in mind, we put together this handy primer to get you ready.
What’s the Deal with the Draw?
Teams will be drawn from four pots. Each pot contains eight teams with the first pot containing host nation Russia and the top seven teams by FIFA rankings as of October 2017. Pot 2 contains the next eight highest ranked teams, then the next eight in Pot 3, and the remainder in Pot 4. Peru, being the 10th-ranked team, is in Pot 2.
Since FIFA rankings can be weird, this makes for some odd quirks, like Poland being in Pot 1 while Spain is in Pot 2.
Eight groups will be drawn, with one team from each pot going into each of the eight groups — meaning no group will have two teams from Pot 1 or any other pot. Each group of four teams will have a country from each of the four pots. Simple, right? Well, not so fast. Confederation teams will be split into different groups for the most part, so Peru (from Pot 2) and Brazil (from Pot 1), for example, would not be put in the same group. The exception to this is UEFA, which has 14 teams in the 32-team field. UEFA may have up to two teams in one group together.
Here are the teams from each pot (FIFA world ranking as of Oct. 2017 in parentheses):
World Cup Draw
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Russia (65) (hosts) | Spain (8) | Denmark (19) | Serbia (38) |
| Germany (1) | Peru (10) | Iceland (21) | Nigeria (41) |
| Brazil (2) | Switzerland (11) | Costa Rica (22) | Australia (43) |
| Portugal (3) | England (12) | Sweden (25) | Japan (44) |
| Argentina (4) | Colombia (13) | Tunisia (28) | Morocco (48) |
| Belgium (5) | Mexico (16) | Egypt (30) | Panama (49) |
| Poland (6) | Uruguay (17) | Senegal (32) | South Korea (62) |
| France (7) | Croatia (18) | Iran (34) | Saudi Arabia (63) |
This seems like an appropriate time to remind everyone that you won’t see the United States, Italy, Chile, the Netherlands, or Ghana in the table above because they all improbably failed to qualify. Not rubbing it in here, just reminding everyone. Also, I’m sad now.
How to Watch
Time: 10 a.m. (ET).
Venue: State Kremlin Palace — Moscow, Russia.
TV: FOX Sports 1.
Streaming: fuboTV.
Twitter: For live updates, follow along at @FIFAWorldCup.
Enjoy the draw, everyone!