The FIFA World Cup for 2014 in Brazil starts next week on Friday, June 12 and the match fixtures and TV schedule picks up with coverage from ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 for the entirety of the tournament as the 32 nations battle to see who the best football team is and things will be based in Sao Paulo as teams like Brazil, Spain, England, France, Portugal, Argentina, Germany and Italy look for strong showings following the 2010 tourney.
News came out this week from the New York Times about match fixing from before the last World Cup and that has put some shadows over Brazil, as there has been plenty of controversy there with the way some of the stadiums have been built, the planning of the tournament and the money spent on the event. There are more international friendly matches to be played over this week and next before the World Cup begins and a week from Thursday on June 12, Brazil and Croatia will meet for the first match of the tournament in Arena Corinthians and that will be on ESPN.
The first set of games comes on Friday after Brazil kicks things off and it includes games with Mexico, Cameroon, Spain, Netherlands, Chile and Australia. Spain is trying to defend their title and they come in strong, while teams like the Netherlands and Mexico have high hopes as well. The next day has some big matches, including England and Italy playing in the Amazon and both of those teams will be looking to start things off with a win. Ivory Coast and Japan are also playing that day in the late game, while Uruguay and Costa Rica are playing along with Colombia and Greece.
The United States has a very tough schedule, as they are in Group G aka the group of death and they also happen to have the longest travel schedule of anyone in the tournament. The team plays against Germany, Portugal and Ghana, meaning they matchup against Jurgen Klinsmann's old team, against Cristiano Ronaldo and against the team that knocked them out of the World Cup in each of the past two tournaments.
Check here for the full TV schedule for the World Cup tournament.