HOUSTON — Before the matches begin, the drama starts with the draw — the moment the soccer world hits ‘refresh’ nonstop.

Here’s how it works for the first-ever 48-team World Cup .

All the qualified countries, plus a few playoff teams, are placed into four pots of twelve, based on world rankings.

Pot 1 has the heavyweights: Spain, Argentina, France, England, Brazil, Germany, and the three hosts -- the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.

From there, FIFA draws one team from each pot to create twelve groups -- Groups A through L.

It’s like building twelve dinner tables for a very large wedding, with some complicated seating rules.

One rule: teams from the same region usually can’t share a group, except Europe, which shows up with half the guest list. Still, Europe can have no more than two cl

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