The World Cup Brazil 2014 thread

[Zenith]

The World Cup Brazil 2014 Thread

FIFA World Cup 2014

HOST: Brazil
START DATE: Thursday, June 12
END DATE: Sunday, July 13
TEAMS: 32

*

Venues

PLAYING VENUES: 12
MATCHES: 64
OPENING MATCH: Arena de Itaquera
FINAL: Maracanã
AVERAGE VENUE CAPACITY: 55,333 seats
LARGEST VENUE/ Maracanã (79,000 seats)
SMALLEST VENUE: Arena da Baixada: (41,000 seats)
No. OF MATCHES PER VENUE (avg): 5.33

Rio de Janeiro
Maracanã (78,838 seats)



São Paulo
Arena de Itaquera (65,000 seats)



Belo Horizonte
Mineirão (64,000 seats)



Brasilia
Estádio Nacional de Brasilia (71,412 seats)



Fortaleza
Arena Castelão (63,903 seats)



Salvador
Arena Fonte Nova (53,700 seats)



Porto Alegre
Estádio José Pinheiro Borda (Beira-Rio – 52,000 seats)



Recife
Itaipava Arena Pernambuco (46,000 seats)



Manaus
Arena da Amazônia (44,000 seats)



Cuiabá
Arena Pantanal (43,000 seats)



Natal
Arena das Dunas (43,000 seats)



Curitibar
Arena da Baixada (41,000 seats)

*

Groups

Group A

Brazil
Croatia
Mexico
Cameroon


Group B

Spain
Netherlands
Chile
Australia


Group C

Colombia
Greece
Ivory Coast
Japan


Group D

Uruguay
Costa Rica
England
Italy


Group E

Switzerland
Ecuador
France
Honduras


Group F

Argentina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Iran
Nigeria


Group G

Germany
Portugal
Ghana
United States


Group H

Belgium
Algeria
Russia
South Korea

*

Players to miss the World Cup through injury (42):

Holger Badstuber
Lars Bender
Sven Bender
Mario Gomez
İlkay Gündoğan
Marco Reus
Thiago Alcántara
Alvaro Arbeloa
Jesé Rodríguez
Victor Valdes
Kevin Strootman
Rafael van der Vaart
Gregory van der Wiel
Jetro Willems
Jay Rodriguez
Andros Townsend
Theo Walcott
Clement Grenier
Steve Mandanda
Franck Ribéry
Christian Benteke
Koen Casteels
Bruma
Silvio
Radamel Falcao
Amaranto Perea
Edwin Valencia
Robbie Kruse
Rhys Williams
Niko Kranjčar
Ivan Strinić
Juan Carlos Medina
Luis Montes
Stuart Holden
Makoto Hasebe
Bright Dike
Roman Shirokov
Dmitry Tarasov
Bryan Oviedo
Matias Fernández
Jerry Akaminko
Ricardo Montolivo

[Cripps]

Germany I hope.

Well I hope England but that won't happen

[GSK_AFC]

I think Brazil will win it but I'm hoping Portugal do it if not England.

[Yago]

Belgium's not gonna happen :S ... I voted Spain because that's what I expect. They haven't been that great lately, but they weren't either in 2012 and the totally destroyed Italy in the final. Brazil... Meh, I don't know... I don't think they'll pull it off. Argentina will probably fail. I don't expect much from Portugal, Italy and The Netherlands, France might surprise but ultimately they lack ze quality. Germany also have a great squad (they do have a striker issue though). Looking forward to seeing teams like Colombia, Chile, Uruguay and Japan in action.
But I chose Spain because they know how to win this.

[UFGN]

I feel that this will be the last great World Cup. International football has become a laughing stock since the Qatar farce and this imo will be the swan song of World Cup football. Fitting that its in Brazil.

[Cripps]

All the non European based world cups I've seen have been a let down

[CrimsonGunner11]

I originally said Germany is going to win, but I'm going with Brazil now

(If Brazil and Germany meet in the semi-finals, then Brazil will go on to win it.
If Brazil and Germany meet in the finals, Germany will win after penalty shootout)

[Dejan]

brazil isnt really that good imo

they wont reach the finals

[Arsenal Tone]

It'll be an all south american final imo.

[GSK_AFC]

brazil isnt really that good imo

they wont reach the finals

Home advantage will play a big part though. They won the confederation cup easily last year too.

[Cripps]

I just want an entertaining tournament.

All this stoke, tippy tappy style football needs to go away

[Apollo]

Waiting to see the reaction at the Maracana when Argentina lift the World Cup.

[Cripps]

Argentina are shit so can't see it happening.

[Apollo]

Argentina are shit so can't see it happening.

My future vision is 20/20, its gonna be riot.

[Cripps]

Well I hope you are wrong.

Having that c*** Messi win the big one would be the death of football