The Seattle Sounders have been included in possibly the toughest group in the Club World Cup, even being dubbed the dreaded “Group of Death” by the hosts on the broadcast.

No disrespect to the Sounders, but that’s mostly because of the other clubs in the group: Paris Saint-Germain, Atlético Madrid and Botafogo.

Overall, the group has the third highest valuation according to Transfermarkt.

I’m pretty sure we could have figured this all out in about five minutes. But here we are, the full FIFA Club World Cup draw via @transfermarkt-com.bsky.social

(image or embed)

— Manuel Veth (@manuelveth.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 11:39 am

The full schedule for the group is expected to be released in the coming days, but the Sounders will open against Botafogo.

The top seed will be French giants PSG, who have won Ligue 1 10 times in the last 12 seasons and have not finished worse than second since 2010/11, when they finished fourth. They have also qualified for the UEFA Champions League for 12 years in a row and made it to the semi-finals last season. They currently lead Ligue 1 with an unbeaten record of 10-0-3 and are the eighth-ranked team in the world according to Opta.

The second team in the group is Atletico Madrid, generally considered the third largest team in Spain. They are the only team outside Real Madrid and Barcelona to win La Liga in the last 20 years, having done so in 2013–14 and 2020–21. They have not finished outside the top three in La Liga in the last 12 seasons and currently sit third in the table with a record of 9-1-5. Opta ranks them as the 14th best team in the world. Interestingly, Obed Vargas has said that Atlético Madrid was his favorite European team as a child.

The other team in Group B is Brazil’s Botafogo, who were the last team to qualify for the tournament after winning the club’s first-ever Copa Libertadores last week. Although not traditionally a super club, they are also on the verge of winning the Brazilian Serie A for the first time since 1995. It wasn’t until 2020, in the season after João Paulo’s departure, that they were relegated to Serie B for the Sounders. They are now owned by American businessman John Textor, who briefly owned Seattle Reign after purchasing OL Groupe.