The draw has been held for next year's World Cup football tournament in Germany, with five-time champions Brazil and two-time winners Argentina in tough groups.
As the host country, Germany tops group-A and was one of the eight seeded teams. The other seeds were defending champion Brazil, Argentina, England, France, Italy, Mexico and Spain.
The Germans were drawn with Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador. The host country opens the tournament in Munich against Costa Rica June 9.
Defending champion Brazil headlines Group-F and takes on Croatia, Australia and Japan in the first round. Argentina is atop Group-C and faces Ivory Coast, Serbia and Montenegro and the Netherlands.
The U.S. team was not seeded, but was drawn in Group-E with three-time winners Italy, Ghana and the Czech Republic. U.S. Coach Bruce Arena says the first round will be a challenge for his team. "We are not a seeded team so that means that we are going to play, obviously one of the seeded teams, which is going to be a tough opponent. And another strong team out of Europe. Is it the draw I would have written down on a piece of paper if you asked me, no. But, fair enough it is still a group that I think if we prepare our team properly, and are ready to play we can get out of group play," he said.
Elsewhere, England leads Group-B with Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Sweden. Mexico plays in Group-D against Iran, Angola and Portugal.
Former champions France were drawn in Group-G with Switzerland, South Korea, and Togo. Spain rounds out the first round in Group-H against Ukraine, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.
The World Cup opens June 9 in Munich and ends July 9 with the final in Berlin. Brazil has won the most World Cups with five and has captured the trophy two of the last three times. The last time Germany took the Cup was 1990.