Getting Fired Up Over the World’s Biggest Sporting Event!
After much fanfare (and more than a little controversy) the month-long Federation International Football Association (FIFA) finally kicked off its 20th World Cup in Brazil on June 12. Held every four years in a different host country, this soccer tournament is made up of 32 national teams from six regions (out of 209 total eligible teams) who compete in a total 64 elimination matches to determine the final winner.
Some Basics
Let’s start with the name of the sport that is being played. Throughout most of the world, it is called association football (or some variation depending on the language, like futbol in Spanish). Here in the United States, it is called soccer. This is to differentiate it from the more popular sport we play in the fall (known as “gridiron football” elsewhere). The name “soccer” is basically a slang word that came from the middle of word “association” and was popularized in the early 1900s.
The 32 qualification slots for the World Cup are not divided equally among the regions.Europe has 13, South America and Africa each have 5, Asia has 4, North America has 3 and Oceania only has a slot if one of its teams wins a playoff game. There are two slots open to those who also win playoffs. In addition, the host team automatically qualifies. The qualified teams are divided into eight groups (A-H) made up of four teams each. The four teams in each group play one another, earning 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie. The top two teams from each group advance to the next level, where single elimination matches continue until one team emerges victorious.
2014 World Cup Highlights
©Corbis. All Rights Reserved.
The matches are being played in twelve venues located in twelve cities throughout Brazil, with the final match located in Rio de Janeiro. The ten favorite teams headed into this year’s games were Columbia, Spain, France, England, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina and Brazil, with one of the latter three favored to win the whole thing. Some of the stand-out players are Jorge Sampaoli of Chile, Sergio Bousquets of Spain and Mario Balotelli of Italy.
The U.S. Mens National Team has managed to exceed expectations by winning its first match against Ghana (who had beat them in the two previous World Cups). They also played Portugal this past Sunday in a thrilling game that saw Team USA fall behind early, tie the game and then go ahead in the final minutes, only to give up a goal in the final seconds to result in a draw (soccer-speak for “tie”).
While American fans have showed up in to the games in record numbers, USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann has gotten a lot of flack for public comments he made saying his team had no chance of winning this World Cup. The organization is hoping to minimize the negativity with their amped-up social media campaign, One Nation. One Team. Fans are encouraged to use the hashtag #1N1T when posting messages to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Social media is expected to generate more buzz than any other sporting event ever, including the recent Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
Team USA plays Germany in the final match of Group play this Thursday. If the Americans win or draw against Germany, both of those teams will advance to the next round of the tournament. But Team USA has to play extremely well against a strong German side to advance. It’ll take all of their skill and lots of effort to move on in this year’s World Cup.