Maybe the World Cup mascots are cool We must admit that we poked fun at the World Cup mascots, Goleo VI the lion and Pille the talking soccer ball, when we first saw them. But now we see them hanging out with Heidi Klum, and we are somewhat impressed. (As Pille’s “first loves are football, flying and women,” he must be in seventh heaven at the moment.) Mrs. Seal, the German supermodel, is lending her considerable talents to the World Cup finals official draw, which takes place today (2:30 p.m. EST) in Leipzig, Germany, to determine how the 32 teams will be divided for group play at next summer’s tournament. Some 350 million people worldwide are expected to watch the draw on television. The U.S. just missed getting one of the eight seeds for the tournament, and hopefully they won’t land in a so-called Group of Death. —Posted by Tim Nudd

December 9, 2005 | Permalink

Comments

---

How the hell did Mexico get seeded? We beat them like a drum over the past few years.

Posted by: Bob | Dec 9, 2005 9:09:34 AM

In two words, Steve Sampson. I've read that WC 1998 results were a factor.

Posted by: Tim Nudd | Dec 9, 2005 9:13:44 AM

It's a shame that FIFA uses results from eight years ago to determine seedings. How many of those players from the '98 disaster are still on the U.S. team?

Posted by: John Wagner | Dec 9, 2005 9:59:32 AM

Pille, is not a talking soccer ball. He's a talking football. Only in the US is football called soccer. For some strange reason American's call a game that is hardly ever played with the feet, fotball. Shouldn't it be called handball? Although maybe that wouldn't work, as many American football players go through an entire career without ever touching the football... Ooops, sorry, handball.

Posted by: George Parker | Dec 9, 2005 3:06:21 PM

Post a comment

Name:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments:

The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.