American manager Bob Bradley is set to face his toughest challenge yet at the helm of Egypt's national team when the draw is held on Monday for the third and final round of FIFA World Cup qualifying in Africa.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) used the FIFA World Rankings unveiled on Thursday to determine the seeded teams from the 10 still standing and Egypt will not be one of them.
The five highest-ranked teams in those latest FIFA rankings – Ivory Coast (No. 19), Ghana (No. 24), Algeria (No. 28), Nigeria (No. 36) and Tunisia (No. 46) – were placed in Pot 1, and they will be drawn against one of the remaining five teams in Pot 2: Egypt (No. 50), Burkina Faso (No. 51), Cameroon (No. 61), Senegal (No. 66) and Ethiopia (No. 93).
Tunisia were only added to the field of 10 teams on Thursday after FIFA sanctioned the Cape Verde Islands for fielding an ineligible player during a Sept. 7 match, overturning their 2-0 defeat of Tunisia. Instead, Tunisia claimed a 3-0 forfeit victory and advanced to the third round as the top team in Group B.
The winners of each of the five aggregate-goal, home-and-home series will represent Africa in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The matches will be played on Oct. 11-15 (first leg) and Nov. 15-19 (second leg).
FIFA officials will conduct the third-round draw at CAF headquarters in Cairo at 6 am ET on Monday.
