On the strength of two consecutive wins this month. South Korea stayed at No. 22 in the latest FIFA rankings released Thursday, all but guaranteeing themselves a favorable position for the upcoming World Cup draw.
South Korea defeated Bolivia 2-0 last Friday and then Ghana 1-0 on Tuesday to close out the year. South Korea added 5.53 points to reach 1,599.45 points to remain at No. 22.
The position most likely means South Korea will be in Pot 2 for the World Cup draw, scheduled for noon on Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, or 2 a.m. Dec. 6 in South Korean time.
The 48 participating nations will be divided into four pots of 12. Pot 1 will feature the three co-host nations, the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the nine best teams in the FIFA rankings that have qualified for the World Cup. Those nine countries are also first to ninth in the latest rankings: Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
Pot 2 will be made up of the next 12 best qualified nations. With the interconfederation playoffs and European playoffs still remaining, South Korea are the 20th highest-ranked team among the 42 countries with World Cup tickets already booked.
Two nations ranked above South Korea, Italy (12) and Denmark (21), must win European playoff to qualify. It wasn't immediately clear how playoff winners will be seeded for the draw.
Even if both Italy and Denmark qualify and get slotted ahead of South Korea based on their FIFA rankings, South Korea will still be among the next 12 best teams after the group that makes up Pot 1.
As things stand now, Pot 2 teams, with rankings in parentheses, will be: Croatia (10), Morocco (11), Colombia (13), Uruguay (16), Switzerland (17), Japan, (18), Senegal (19), Iran (20), South Korea, Ecuador (23), Austria (24) and Australia (26).
There will be 12 groups of four, with one team from each of the four pots. Teams in the same pot will not end up in the same group, meaning South Korea will avoid facing the likes of Croatia and Morocco in the group stage.
Also, two teams from the same continent cannot be placed in the same group, with an exception of Europe, which can have up to two nations in the same group.
Pot 3 teams are: Norway (29), Panama (30), Egypt (34), Algeria (35), Scotland (36), Paraguay (39), Tunisia (40), Ivory Coast (42), Uzbekistan (50), Qatar (51), Saudi Arabia (60) and South Africa (61).
Pot 4 teams are: Jordan (66), Cape Verde (68), Ghana (72), Curacao (82), Haiti (84) and New Zealand (86). (Yonhap)
