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Heidi Klum - Cup draw a nervous occasion

December 9th, 2005

AS if the first World Cup draw involving Australia for 32 years wasn’t exciting enough, supermodel Heidi Klum will add a touch of glamour to the ball juggling ceremony tomorrow morning (AEDT).

The supermodel is as nervous as the 32 qualified teams will be about the draw for the world’s biggest sporting event, which is being hosted in her native Germany next June.

“Your heart is bound to beat a little faster,” she said this week, but at least she’s got the outfit sorted.

“I’ve picked out a turquoise dress, but everyone knows what women are like, so I might change my mind at the last minute,” she said.

Indeed, uncertainty will be the theme for the ceremony.

Australia, we know, will be drawn against one seeded team, one unseeded European team and one team from the Asia and Americas pool, but who those teams are will remain a mystery until the draw is complete.

A possible and fun scenario would be a group containing the Socceroos alongside seeded England, Australia’s traditional sporting rival, The Netherlands, an unseeded European nation and the native country of Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink, and the United States, whose coach Bruce Arena foolishly dubbed Australia one of the two weakest team in the draw this week.

Seemingly not aware of Australia’s propensity to bristle like a scalded cat at suggestions of inferior sporting prowess, Arena blurted out on Tuesday that he thought the Socceroos were the easybeats of the draw alongside Dwight Yorke’s Trinidad and Tobago.

He clarified his comments 24 hours later with a red face and an all-American smile, but it will not stop the Socceroos wanting to take a shot at his side if the chance comes.
“I’d love a crack at them,” Fox Sports’s Robbie Slater said last night. “Misinformed is a nice way to put (what Arena said).”

A match against England could stop the nation, according to Frank Farina. It could also send England’s fan club into a quivering, dribbling mess at the memory of the 3-1 drubbing meted by a rampant Socceroos under Farina’s charge at Upton Park on February 12, 2003.

The Netherlands, unseeded as a result of poor past performances of late, will be a dark horse for the World Cup with players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arjen Robben, of Manchester United and Chelsea respectively, ready to dance through defences towards goal.

FIFA expects 350 million viewers to watch the draw live as it is beamed from a 4000-capacity glass hall at the Leipzig Messe in eastern Germany to television sets across the globe.

Plenty of the game’s legends are in town to dip their hands in the tombola and add sparkle to the draw’s unique recipe for excitement.

Brazil’s Pele, Holland’s Johan Cruyff, Cameroon’s Roger Milla and Germany’s own Franz Beckenbauer are just a few. Hiddink will be there, too, joined by Football Federation Australia head honchos Frank Lowy and John O’Neill.

They’ll watch nervously as supermodel Klum joins local television presenter Reinhold Beckmann and FIFA director of communications Markus Siegler for the draw in Leipzig, which starts at 6.15am (AEDT).

FOX SPORTS

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,17511423-23215,00.html

Entry Filed under: WorldCup2006