World Cup draw takes familiar look for U.S.

NEW YORK -- The first round of the 2006 World Cup looks a lot like 1990 to the United States.

The Americans were drawn Friday to open next year's tournament in Germany against the Czech Republic on June 12, then will play Italy on June 17 and Ghana on June 22.

Back at the 1990 tournament in Italy, a nervous bunch of post-college all-stars was beat up 5-1 by Czechoslovakia in the Americans' first World Cup appearance in 40 years. Then they lost 1-0 to the Italians in Rome before exiting with a 2-1 loss to Austria.

"I sat in the stands in Italy and shook my head," U.S. coach Bruce Arena said. "And not to disrespect the performance of our players, but it was so obvious to me at that point in time that we had a long way to go, and 16 years later we get to replay these matches. So it will be interesting to see where we are."

The Americans have never beaten any of their three opponents, and their group is the only one with three nations among the top 12 in the FIFA world rankings: the Czechs are second, the Americans eighth and the Italians 12th. They're 0-3-2 against Italy, never played Ghana and had just that one match against the Czechs. British bookmaker William Hill increased the U.S. odds from 80-1 to 100-1 after the draw.

"Be careful what you ask for, but I think it could have been a lot worse," U.S. midfielder Clint Dempsey said.

Players were dispersed around the United States and Europe as they watched the draw, held in Leipzig.

"I think it's a group where we can have a lot of success," forward Eddie Johnson said. "I think we can go in with great confidence and match up really well."

In FIFA's system for the draw, based on performances in the last two World Cup and the rankings, the Americans missed being seeded by one point.

"It seems to have for the time being come back and hurt us," U.S. captain Claudio Reyna said. "We've probably got as difficult a group as we could have really asked for."

The Czechs advanced to the 2004 European Championship semifinals before losing to Greece 1-0 in overtime. Led by Pavel Nedved, the 2003 European player of the year, they have a strong corps that includes Tomas Rosicky, Milan Baros and Vladimir Smicer.

Italy, known as the Azzurri, has a fan base that expects a World Cup title from an underachieving team that hasn't won the championship since 1982.

"I don't think they're as strong as they've been in the past," Johnson said. "Italian soccer isn't as good as it used to be."

"Two of the teams drawn with Italy have a higher FIFA ranking, but we don't feel inferior," Italy coach Marcelo Lippi said.

Ghana, nicknamed the Black Stars, is in the World Cup for the first time, but was African champion in 1963, 1965, 1978 and 1982.