Johannesburg — TENSION is building across the globe ahead of Friday's 2010 Soccer World Cup Draw in Cape Town, and Bafana Bafana assistant coach Pitso Mosimane conceded as much yesterday as the countdown to the event continued.

After being on tenterhooks for the past few weeks, the 32 nations that will take part in the global showpiece will finally know which teams they will have to get past in their respective groups to qualify for the knockout stages of the biggest sporting tournament on earth.

Bafana are under enormous pressure to prevent the ignominy of becoming the first host nation to bomb out in the opening stages of a world cup -- and Mosimane said the road begins when their rivals are finally unveiled by the sport's governing body, Fifa, on Friday.

"The next few days are going to be stressful and you just wish the whole thing was all over," Mosimane said yesterday.

"We can feel the tension in the air and it is only going to go away after Friday night. I feel like a high school student who has just written his final examination and I am now waiting for results that could ultimately decide my destiny."

With Bafana ranked lower than the teams they could possibly be drawn against, it is no surprise that even the national team players voiced their growing apprehension to Mosimane. The glittering event, said Danny Jordaan, CEO of the 2010 World Cup organising committee, would be broadcast to 200 countries, attended by 2000 representatives of the participating nations and 1000 media people.

Mosimane said while Bafana had not performed very well over the past few months, none of their rivals would be so naive as to take the World Cup hosts lightly in their own backyard.

"It is a fact that we are not where we want to be and we have not played to expectations over the past few months. But I can guarantee you that no team wants to be drawn in the same group as the host nation.

"Ask any of the teams that will go into that draw on Friday if they hope to be in the same group as us and none will say yes.

"The fact is the host nation is always going to be fuelled by fervent home support during major tournaments and any team that plays against us will have to contend with the flags, the vuvuzelas, the singing and all the other patriotic support that we saw during the Confederations Cup in June," said Mosimane.

Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and his technical staff had been planning "blind" over the past few months and Mosimane said they would only really be able to set targets after the dust had settled on Friday.

"That is why we are all so anxious. Planning for the unknown has really been frustrating at times. We will finally be able to do things with direction and focus because we will know exactly who we are planning against," Mosimane said.

"Of course, the downside is the others are waiting for that exact same thing and the teams that are in our group will begin their homework on us after the draw."

Mosimane said while they did not have any specific teams that they were desperate to avoid, they would be grateful if Bafana were drawn against some of the sides they had faced over the past few months.

Bafana have had a year they would like to forget in a hurry . So poor was the team's run of results that erstwhile coach Joel Natalino Santana was fired in October.

But Mosimane insisted they were not daunted by the possibility of facing the teams that beat Bafana during the course of the year - Spain (twice) and Brazil during the Confederations Cup in June, Serbia, Germany and Chile.

"Honestly, it would really be a bonus if we could get another chance to face these teams again."