FIFA’s World Cup is such a massive sports event that even people who are not big soccer fans will be exposed to a great deal of soccer-related news. There is one popular saying that during the World Cup the whole world talks only about football. If you don’t want to feel left out of your friends’ or colleagues’ soccer-themed discussions, you might as well learn some basics about this tournament.
The Big Favourites This Year are Brazil and Spain
Brazil and Spain almost always do impressively at the World Cup. However, this time they are expected to do even better since they are the big hopes in Brazil 2014. The reason is that both teams are very experienced and have a decent number of wins behind their backs.
Good Teams May Leave Early
The World Cup is a multi-stage tournament. This means that the teams are separated into a number of groups and that there are different stages through which they have to pass. The countries in one group have to play against each other and only two of them will have the chance to move forward in the championship. Sometimes, all the best teams end up being in the same groups. That means that most of them will go home and will not even get to reach the second stage of the World Cup. That makes predicting the winner particularly difficult.
“Group of Death”
Yes, the “group of death” is that group filled with teams that have the potential to reach the finals. As it was already pointed out, since this group tends to be stacked up with strong team it always offer the biggest or the bitterest surprises. This year, Group G) Germany, Portugal, Ghana, U.S.) is referred to as a the group of death. However, there are also predictions that Group B (Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia) will be even “deadlier.”
World Cup More Important That the Olympic Soccer Tournament
The Olympics are generally seen as the biggest sports even where only the top athletes get the chance to compete. While that applies for most sports, the case is quite different with football. That is because Olympic tournament allows only players under 23 to participate. In contrast, the age of footballers who play at FIFA’s World Cup varies from 18 and can reach to more than 40. Therefore, World Cup athletes are much more experienced than their Olympic colleagues.
Well, those were only the basics. However, that is enough to get the hang of at least the most important things about the event and give you the confidence to join a heated soccer discussion.
