The draw for this summer's Women's World Cup took place on Sunday in China. The top two teams from each group will go through to the quarter-finals. Here are the groups, with the teams' current world ranking in brackets:

Group A
Germany (2)
Japan (9)
England (12)
Argentina (32)

Germany are the reigning world and European champions. They're a talented and physically tough team who won all of their 8 games in qualifying, and I expect them to make it out of the group stage easily. Japan and England will probably be slugging it out for second place. Japan, whose best ever showing at the World Cup was the quarter-finals in 1995, had to beat Mexico in a playoff to qualify, after finishing behind Australia and Korea in Asia.

England also reached the quarter-finals in 1995, their only previous appearance in the tournament. The women's game has been growing in the country recently, though -- overcoming obstables like the FA banning women playing on league grounds from 1920 to 1971 (which kind of explains people like Mike Newell, eh?). They had a tough qualifying group that included France and the Netherlands, but they struggled through, and I think they could surprise people this year. The final team in the group, Argentina, upset Brazil to qualify in first place from CONMEBOL, but I don't think they've got the quality to carry them through a whole tournament.

Prediction: Germany and England

Group B
Nigeria (24)
USA (1)
Korea DPR (5)
Sweden (4)

I think this one is the group of death. Unlike the men's World Cup, though, the USA are far from being underdogs. They won the tournament in 1991 and again in 1999 (a slightly disappointing 3rd in 2003), and they've recently regained their #1 world ranking. Sweden came second the last time around, losing to Germany in the finals, and they're one of the powerhouses of women's soccer. Another strong team that scores lots of goals, they went undefeated in their qualifying campaign.

I'm a bit surprised to see the Koreans ranked so highly, especially since they haven't made it past the group stage before at the World Cup. But that ranking is probably helped by the performance of their U20 team, who beat China to win the inaugural world championship last year. Nigeria are perennial contenders at the World Cup but usually disappoint once they're there -- their best performance was making the quarter-finals in 1999. But they're also five-time African champions, and this could be the year that they step up on the world stage.

Prediction: USA and (ooh, this is a tough one) Korea

Group C
Norway (3)
Ghana (48)
Australia (14)
Canada (10)

I'll be cheering for Canada, obviously -- it makes a nice changes from the men's game, where the Canadians are nowhere. Canada put in a strong showing in 2003 and finished fourth. They'll be without some veterans like Charmaine Hooper this time around after a dispute with the CSA, but they're going to be living together for three months in a training cap to prepare for the tournament and I expect them to do well again. Norway are the big guns in this group, though. They won in 1995 but -- missing some key players -- went out in the quarters in 2003. They've since regrouped and finished first among the European qualifiers.

Despite their lower international ranking, Australia actually finished ahead of Korea and Japan in their first attempt at qualifying through the Asian federation. They've never made it out of their group before but will be hoping for a better showing this time. Ghana, like Canada, are usually overshadowed by their continental rivals (in this case, Nigeria) -- but, like the men's side, will still be a tough team to play, trying to make the quarter-finals for the first time.

Prediction: Norway and Canada

Group D
China PR (11)
New Zealand (23)
Brazil (8)
Denmark (6)

I'm kind of surprised China are ranked so low -- but my perception of the teams' relative strength is still kind of biased by the first tournament I followed, back in 1999. China have slipped in the past few years -- they were runners-up in 1999 but were eliminated in the quarters in 2003 -- although they regained their continental title in the 2006 Asian Cup. New Zealand are making their first appearance at the World Cup since 1991. They qualified easily this year, but from the understrength Oceania federation; I expect them to get their little kiwi butts kicked.

Brazil come into the tournament wanting to restore some pride after their unexpected loss to Argentina. Their best performance so far was finishing third in 1999, and they have a good chance this year too, with Marta, the FIFA Women's Player of the Year in 2006. Denmark are one of three Scandinavian teams to qualify, but they're probably the weakest of the bunch. Their qualifying campaign was kind of a nail-biter, and they've never made it past the quarter-finals before.

Prediction: China and Brazil

Group A
Canada
Chile
Congo
Austria

Group B
Spain
Uruguay
Jordan
Zambia

Group C
Portugal
New Zealand
Gambia
Mexico

Group D
Poland
Brazil
South Korea
USA

Group E
Argentina
Czech
North Korea
Panama

Group F
Japan
Scotland
Nigeria
Costa Rica

The tournament kicks off in Toronto on July 1, with Canada facing Chile in the opening match.

Congratulations, Lille! You have been officially awarded the prestigious title of Pissy French Bitches 2007 (previous holders: Arsenal). They are now (a) blaming Man United for the over-crowding in the away end and (b) claiming that the game should be replayed because the referee let Giggs's goal stand. Both of which are bullshit.

Let's start with the free-kick. Yes, quite often the referee tells the teams that they have to wait for the whistle to restart play. He didn't do that this time. So when Lille spent too much time faffing around setting up their wall and Giggs took advantage of that, they have only themselves to blame. It's understandable that they feel hard done by, especially since they'd previously had a goal disallowed for a push on Vidic, but reacting as if they were going to take their ball and go home is needlessly petulant. It's the sort of behaviour I'd expect in my rec league (where, instead of referees, you call your own fouls and the teams award each other "spirit points" after the game; yeah, it works about as well as you'd expect), not from professional footballers.

As much attention as is being paid to this -- and when I finally saw the game, I was a little disappointed, because I was expecting a bigger kerfuffle -- the more serious issue is the trouble with the away fans. There are conflicting reports as to what exactly happened, but basically: there were too many fans in the away section of the stands, possibly because of people using fake tickets, possibly because of stadium staff not actually checking tickets and just letting people in. Some of those fans felt that they were in danger of being crushed and tried to climb out, and the security people dealt with this by spraying tear gas at the crowd. Which, as you can imagine, was a big help. The whole thing is just boggling to me. I mean, having to segregate away fans behind wire fences is boggling enough in the first place, considering that I'm used to North American stadiums where you can sit anywhere. I can accept that it's necessary in other places, but if you're going to do it, isn't the point to make it less dangerous for the fans, rather than more so?

Right, so: Massive organizational fuck-ups aside, what about the game? Well, United started brightly enough, with lots of possession, but not enough of it was in the final third of the pitch. Although they lined up in the 4-4-2 I was hoping for (hallelujah!), they were lacking the final ball to the strikers or players really driving forward from midfield. Lille did a good job of harrying them and closing down space in the midfield; I thought Jean Makoun was their best player and it's easy to see why United were interested in him. Gradually, though, it was looking as if the game would peter out into a scoreless draw, until Giggs stepped up to give United a crucial away goal. I hope they'll go all out to win the return leg at Old Trafford, because I thought a lot of their problem on Tuesday was due to their usual caution in European away games, despite the purportedly attacking formation.

I finally got around to watching the England-Spain game, and now I kind of wish I hadn't, because they were terrible. Spain weren't in top form either, but nevertheless they were the better team, largely because they demonstrated the ability to pass the ball more two or three times in a row without giving up possession.

I could talk about all the problems with the team at the moment -- inane tactics, strikers who can't score, the complete absence of left-footed players. But instead of dwelling on that, I'm trying to think about the things that actually went right:

1. Ben Foster looked solid in his international debut (in the "not sucking" sense, rather than just the "ate too many pies" sense that Paul Robinson usually does);

2. Steven Gerrard, also, did not entirely suck;

3. Jonathan Woodgate and Keiron Dyer made it through the game without any of their limbs spontaneously falling off;

4. No Jermaine Jenas;

and finally,

5. The worse Steve McClaren does as manager, the more likely it is that they'll sack him sooner rather than later.

On Friday, Steve McClaren named his squad for England's friendly against Spain at Old Trafford next week:

Goalkeepers: Robinson (Tottenham), Foster (Watford), Kirkland (Wigan)

Defenders: Gary Neville (Man Utd), Phil Neville (Everton), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Woodgate (Middlesbrough), Bridge (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Carragher (Liverpool), Dawson (Tottenham), Richards (Man City)

Midfielders: Lennon (Tottenham), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Carrick (Man Utd), Downing (Middlesbrough), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Parker (Newcastle), Lampard (Chelsea), Barry (Aston Villa), Barton (Man City), Jenas (Tottenham), Dyer (Newcastle)

Forwards: Rooney (Man Utd), Crouch (Liverpool), Defoe (Tottenham), Johnson (Everton)

Joey Barton gets his first senior call-up, which, if nothing else, will serve to irritate Frank Lampard, so I approve of that. Jonathan Woodgate and Kieron Dyer are being rewarded for managing to stay healthy for two whole months in a row. Which is more than, say, John Terry has managed recently, so there you go.

It's also nice to see Gareth Barry finally earning another cap, after putting in some good performances this season. He gets the "random left-footed player" spot over Kieran Richardson, who's been sent back down to the U21s, along with Scott Carson and Theo Walcott.

With 28 players in all, it's a rather bloated squad, although I suspect that quite a few of them will pull out. And 12 of those players are midfielders, which says to me that McClaren still hasn't figured out what the hell to do with his midfield, so he's going to throw everything he's got at the problem and hope that something sticks.

Spain's squad for the game:

Goalkeepers: Reina (Liverpool), Casillas (Real Madrid)

Defenders: Lopez (Atletico Madrid), Ibanez (Atletico Madrid), Puyol (Barcelona), Capdevila (Deportivo La Coruna), Ramos (Real Madrid), Navarro (Sevilla)

Midfielders: Fabregas (Arsenal), Iniesta (Barcelona), Xavi (Barcelona), Lopez (Celta Vigo), Alonso (Liverpool), Albelda (Valencia), David (Valencia)

Strikers: Torres (Atletico Madrid), Arizmendi (Deportivo La Coruna), Angulo (Valencia), Morientes (Valencia), Villa (Valencia).

Luis Aragones has named a relatively small squad -- only 20 players. What's notable, though, is that five of them are strikers, whereas England only has four. This is partly because Spain usually plays with three up front, but it also highlights the lack of quality strikers in England at the moment. (Healthy, ones, at least.)

As for how the game will go, it's hard to say. For one thing, it's a friendly, so the normal rules don't really apply. And for another, both England and Spain tend to veer from being quite competent to aggressive mediocrity. It's really a question of which team will turn up on the given day. But for the record, the last time they met -- a friendly in Madrid in November 2004 -- Spain won 1-0.

There's nothing FIFA likes better than a big, cheesy, slightly pointless awards ceremony. So I thought I'd do the same. (Albeit without the women in kimonos, thunderously bad Europop, phallic balloons and whatnot.)

Best Player
Deco. He scored a great goal for Barcelona in the semi-final, came thisclose to scoring another one in the final, and was always vital to the team's passing and movement. This is one case where I think FIFA actually got it right. Although Deco looked thoroughly unimpressed when they gave him his prize, which consisted of a big gold key and a Toyota Prius. (Who needs a Hummer or a Bentley when you can drive a Prius, eh?)

Best Game
The semi-final between Barcelona and Club America. Maybe not the best if you wanted to see a close contest between two evenly matched teams, but for the sheer entertainment value provided by watching Barcelona open a giant can of whoop-ass on the hapless Mexicans? Oh yeah.

Best Fans
The Internacional supporters, who were consistently the loudest group at any of the matches. (And also the most intoxicated. Coincidence?) They even sang and yelled through the entire Club America-Al Ahly match yesterday, when 90% of the stadium was off lining up for food and buying replica Ronaldinho shirts.

Best Venue
Yokohama. Despite the hassle involved in actually getting to the stadium, this was by far the best place to watch a game. No running track around the stadium, proper toilets (yes, this is important to me) and even some not-half-bad food, if you like fried things with cheese, which as it happens I do.

Miss Congeniality
Auckland City FC, for being the friendliest team to talk to in the post-game mixed zone. Possibly this is just because they were the only ones who actually spoke the same language as I do, but nevertheless: nice guys, those Kiwis.

Worst Outfits
The white sweatsuits that Jeonbuk Motors wore for their warmups, which made them look like refugees from a 1970s gym class.

Bad Hair of the Tournament
(Awarded on a team basis, since I did the individual ones before.) This one has to go to Barcelona. I've already discussed the wonder of Ronaldinho and his girly headband, but on top of that you've got Puyol's misguided attempt to look like the drummer from Def Leppard, Marquez's Mexican gangster ponytail, Thiago Motta's greaseball 'fro, Eidur Gudjohnsen's albino comb-forward... it's no contest, really.

Runner-up: Club America. The underdogs made a valiant effort, but really it was just your standard Latin America bad hair rather than anything truly extraordinary.

Most Pleasant SurpriseThe relatively low number of yellow cards handed out (and not a single red!). Unlike the World Cup, where it seemed like every tackle was a foul, or every foul was a booking.

Most Annoying Thing
The way that they cut away from replays of any of the fouls on the stadium screens. I know they don't want to incite the fans by showing replays of controversial incidents, but these fans are so placid I don't think they'd be incited by a whole army of Gary Nevilles making obscene gestures at them.

Runner-up: FIFA's appalling mapmaking skills, which meant that finding the media centre at any given stadium was usually the biggest challenge of the day. I guess they figured that if you could do that, you were qualified to cover the match. But come on, how hard is it to draw the maps so that north is up?

So much for my prediction that Barcelona would win. Maybe I jinxed them?

Barcelona started calmly, passing the ball around the way you know they always do, but Inter had a few decent early chances, and the first corner of the game fell to them. (Although they only had two in the whole match, versus Barca's 11 -- all of which were wasted in Arsenal-esque fashion.)

The Catalans then had a couple of decent shouts for a penalty, as first Eidur Gudjohnsen and then a minute later Ronaldinho were taken down in the box, but they got nothing from the ref.

Barcelona also had several good chances to score, for Gudjohnsen, Deco and Ronaldinho. Perhaps the best one came with a free kick on the edge of the box, which Ronaldinho sent low through the wall (I wonder if he was trying the same thing as he did against Werder Bremen), but it was easily saved by the keeper.

It was scoreless at halftime, as Internacional brought Fabian Vargas on for Alex, while for Barcelona Belleti replaced Gianluca Zambrotta, who'd picked up an injury at the end of the first half. I think this might have hurt Barça in the second half, because some of their most effective moves had been coming from Zambrotta bombing down the right wing in support of Ludivic Giuly, while Inter tried to stifle Ronaldinho on the left.

Barcelona had several more good chances, though -- trying to develop their play through the midfield, while Inter sat back and waited for a chance to break with a long ball or a diagonal pass out to the wings. From the 75th minute on, most of the pressure was coming from Barça -- perhaps realizing that they didn't want this to go to extra time.

But it was Internacional who eventually broke the deadlock. With Carles Puyoly backing off him, Iarley played Adriano through with only Marquez to beat. He skipped past the tackle and slotted the ball home. Cue the Inter bench erupting and a herd of players in neon orange jackets stampeding onto the field.

Then it was just a question of Inter protecting their lead for the last five minutes, although they didn't seem all that inclined to just sit back and soak up the pressure. First Deco almost equalized with another of his trademark shots from 30 yards out, but Clemer just got a hand to it, and then Ronaldinho was knocked over in the D to win a free kick in a dangerous position, which he curled barely inches wide.

Overall, it was a much more even game than I expected, and I suppose that Internacional deserved the win as much as anyone. Certainly Frank Rijkaard seemed to spend his whole post-match press conference talking about how Inter were so much better prepared and whatnot. (I've decided that's his whole role as a manager: being deprecating about the team in interviews. That and pacing around in front of the bench looking pensive. It's a tough job, really -- especially when you've got hair like that.)

And finally, some notes on a few of the other key figures tonight:

The fans
The other bloggers have already commented on this, but although the Barcelona fans definitely outnumbered the Internacional contingent, there were only one or two pockets of them that were actually making some noise. I suspect those were the travelling supporters rather than the local ones -- the rest of the crowd mostly restrained themselves to booing vociferously every time Ronaldinho was tackled or an Inter player went down injured. I was disappointed that there wasn't a bigger group of Inter fans, because the ones that I saw were all completely mental, and I think that would've improved the atmosphere a lot. (I was also disappointed that they didn't try to invade the pitch at the end of the game, but that's another story.)

Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho had quite a few good moments in the first half, but nothing to show for it. It seemed to me that he was trying to be too tricky -- maybe playing to the fans like he did in the semi-final -- rather than trying to just play. And he sort of vanished in the second half, as Inter got better at shutting him down.

Pato
Pato didn't look intimidated by the game, considering that this was only his third professional match. He was more than willing to shoot every chance he got -- although some of those chances, I think he would've been better to pass instead. There were also a few sloppy touches on the ball that looked to me like they came from a combination of inexperience and overconfidence. All in all, he wasn't as effective tonight, and it wasn't a complete surprised when he was subbed off in the 60th minute. I suppose you could say that the Duck had his wings clipped.

(Also, it has just occurred to me that his yellow boots sort of look like a duck's feet. I wonder if he does that on purpose.)

This is it: the one we've been waiting for since the beginning of the tournament.

I've heard quite a few people arguing that Internactional are going to pull off a surprise win tonight. But I think Barcelona should still be the favourites (although the team is still trying to play down their chances just in case they don't win).

Internacional, of course, aren't going to be pushovers the way Club America were on Thursday. And I'm sure the Brazilians will be determined to step up their game after they didn't exactly impress in their semi-final. But they had to rely on their young guns -- Pato and Luiz Adriano -- to win their last game, and somehow I doubt that they have the quality and experience to match Ronaldinho and co. tonight.

I've got a perfect record with my predictions so far, and I think Barcelona are going to win this one. In a couple of hours, we'll find out if I'm right.

In the meantime, we've got a performance from some J-pop group I've never heard of, and a bunch of giant balloons on the pitch that I'm guessing are meant to represent the six football confederations. God love FIFA.

This could have been one of the more interesting games of the tournament, seeing as it featured two teams who were fairly evenly matched. But the first half, at least, was rather dire. The highlight was probably the small group of America supporters in the corner with their very big drum. If I have a headache at the end of this, I'm going to blame the Mexican FA.

Club America had a few chances in the first half but just weren't able to score. I have a vague idea that I've commented here before about their woeful finishing.

Al Ahly broke the deadlock a few minutes before halftime with a free kick from Mohamed Aboutrika, which was curled in beautifully over the wall and past the keeper.

Club America responded by bringing on Cuauhtemoc Blanco at halftime, and he created the equalizer with a perfectly flighted cross that Salvador Cabanas headed home.

The game did spark to life a bit in the second half, but it was too late for me because I'd already fled inside to the media centre to warm up before the next match -- and bemoan the lack of anything resembling tea that might've helped with that.

Club America kept pressing, but to no result. Quite a few of their best chances fell to Claudio Lopez, who'd come on partway through the second half, but each and every time he just barely failed to connect.

Al Ahly went ahead again in the 79th minute, with another goal from Aboutrika -- who's currently the tournament's top scorer, with three goals in as many matches -- after he played a one-two with Flavio that split the Club America defence.

The final result: 2-1 to the Egyptian team. That might have been a bit harsh on Club America, especially if you judged the teams only on their second-half performance, but credit to Al Ahly because they played hard from the very beginning of the game. (Here's a telling statistic: Al Ahly committed 25 fouls versus America's 10. They basically just went out there and kicked the shit out of them.)

We're here in Yokohama for the opening act in tonight's doubleheader: the match between Al Ahly and Club America for the dubious honour of third place. The stadium's only about half full right now -- although there are lots of fans in Barcelona and Internacional wandering outside, fuelling up for the final later.

But let's pretend for a moment to be interested in the game ahead of us. I'm betting on Al Ahly to win this one. They've looked like a solid team in the first two games, although without any obvious stars like Inter or Barca have. Club America, on the other hand, were lucky to win their opening match against Jeonbuk, and are probably still reeling from that 4-0 thumping by Barcelona on Thursday.

Team news: For Club America, Claudio Lopez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco have both been left on the bench, after having failed to do much of anything in their first two matches. Midfielder German Villa has also been dropped, while Matias Vuoso and Juan Mosqueda both get their first start. Al Ahly will be fielding a virtually unchanged lineup, with the exception of backup keeper Amir Abdelhamid, who comes in for number one Essam El Hadary.