Soccer: World Cup 2014

Taken From EA Sports & Wikipedia.

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international men's football tournament that is scheduled to take place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014.^[1] It will be the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the previous being in 1950. Brazil was elected unchallenged as host nation in 2007 after the international football federation,FIFA, decreed that the tournament would be staged in South America for the first time since 1978 in Argentina, and the fifth time overall.

The national teams of 31 countries advanced through qualification competitions that began in June 2011 to participate with the host nation Brazil in the final tournament. A total of 64 matches are to be played in twelve cities across Brazil in either new or redeveloped stadiums, with the tournament beginning with a group stage. For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology.^[2]

With the host country, all world champion teams since the first World Cup in 1930 (Uruguay, Italy, Germany, England,Argentina, France and Spain) have qualified for this competition. Spain is the defending champion, having defeated theNetherlands 1–0 in the 2010 World Cup final to win its first World title. The previous four World Cups staged in South America were all won by South American teams.

Host selection

On 7 March 2003, FIFA announced that the tournament would be held in South America for the first time since 1978, in line with its then-active policy of rotating the right to host the World Cup among different confederations. The decision meant that it would be the first time that two consecutive World Cups will be staged outside Europe.

On 3 June 2003, the South American Football Confederation CONMEBOL initially announced that Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia wanted to host the finals, but by March 2004, the CONMEBOL associations had unanimously voted to adopt Brazil as their sole candidate.

During the intervening months, Colombia decided that it would enter its own bid, and formally declared its candidacy in December 2006. A week earlier Brazil had also formally announced its interest.

However, Colombia officially withdrew its bid in April 2007, leaving Brazil as the only host candidate. On 30 October 2007 FIFA officially confirmed that Brazil would host the event.

Qualified teams

The following 32 teams, shown with October 2013 rankings used for seeding in the draw, qualified for the final tournament.

AFC (4)

Australia (57)
Iran (49)
Japan (44)
South Korea (56)

CAF (5)

Algeria (32)
Cameroon (59)
Ghana (23)
Ivory Coast (17)
Nigeria (33)

OFC (0)



Match ball Adidas Brazuca ball Main article: Adidas Brazuca The official ball of the 2014 World Cup will be the Adidas Brazuca. The name was selected by a public vote that received responses from more than 1 million Brazilian football fans; "Brazuca" received over 70 per cent of the vote. Adidas, the official FIFA World Cup match ball supplier since 1970, took inspiration from elements of Brazilian culture to come up with a shortlist of three possible names for the ball that also included Bossa Nova and Carnavalesca. Group C Main article: 2014 FIFA World Cup Group C Team v t e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Colombia 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Greece 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ivory Coast 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Japan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 June 2014 13:00 Colombia Match 5 Greece Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte 14 June 2014 22:00 Ivory Coast Match 6 Japan Arena Pernambuco, Recife 19 June 2014 13:00 Colombia Match 21 Ivory Coast Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha, Brasília 19 June 2014 19:00 Japan Match 22 Greece Arena das Dunas, Natal 24 June 2014 17:00 Japan Match 37 Colombia Arena Pantanal, Cuiabá 24 June 2014 17:00 Greece Match 38 Ivory Coast Estádio Castelão, Fortaleza COLOMBIA GOT THIS!!!!!