Once every four years, the world is treated to the greatest month of football on the planet, and expectations are high for the current crop of teams that have qualified.
32 teams in eight groups from across the world will compete for the trophy—competing not for money, but for national pride. In order to get to this stage, teams are put through a grueling set of qualifying games within their regional groups.
And where better than Brazil, who have made the term “the beautiful game” their mantra? Football is virtually a state religion. Within this vast expanse of a country lie a dozen stadiums in a dozen different cities, a combination of new and refurbished football arenas, at a projected cost of just under $3.5 billion.
A collage of the stadiums—featuring each one’s location and capacity—is pictured below (image via MercoPress).
What they’ll be playing for
For the teams that advance to finals, the financial payoff is great. The champions will receive $35 million, with the runner-up receiving $25 million.
But it all starts with the group stage. Thirty two teams are randomly selected into eight groups. Arguably the toughest draw, nicknamed the Group of Death, pits Germany, Portugal, Ghana and the United States against each other. And only two teams can advance out of the group. Expect each game to be hard-fought and competitive, with perhaps one of the two advancing teams moving forward based upon a tie-breaker. Yep, it’s that close.
Group D has some interesting match-ups as well, with the group consisting of Uruguay, Costa Rica, England and Italy. On first glance, it might seem that England and Italy would be the teams to advance, but England has underperformed in recent matches, Italy’s defense is suspect and Uruguay has qualified playing against some very tough South American competition. They’re also coming off a great run and fourth-place finish in the 2010 World Cup. And even Costa Rica can’t be discounted, having finished in second place just behind the United States in the CONCACAF group. None of these teams should be overlooked.
And after a grueling club schedule, one of the largest wild cards are player injuries, especially to key players on teams that lack depth. For example, Colombian star forward Radamel Falcao is recovering from an ACL injury he suffered back in January. The team hopes he will return in time for their opening match, but even if he does, it’s clear he won’t be in match shape. And that may well affect the group balance.
In the coming weeks, we will cover the teams, players and all things World Cup-related. We look forward to having you join us by sharing your opinions as we prepare for the world’s greatest sporting competition. Keep it here for plenty of news bits, original content and viral videos/tweets/photos. We’ll be breaking down each group starting this week as well.
