The World Cup 2014 tournament is set to begin in 10 days and the standings heading into the group draw has Brazil and Spain as some of the favorites to advance to the knockout stages and teams like England, France, Germany, Uruguay, Argentina, the United States, Mexico, Ghana, Portugal and Cameroon all feel like they have chances to advance to the knockout round as well.
The group stage this year will be very entertaining, as the pool of 32 teams is highly skilled and there are a number of nations that are looking to make an impact, including Mexico after they had to claw their way into the tournament. The US defeated Panama late in qualifying to help Mexico stay alive and the team won a playoff against New Zealand to make it in and now El Tri has a favorable but difficult way through, as they are in the same group as the home nation.
Mexico is with Brazil, Croatia and Cameroon in Group A and that means those three teams are basically playing for one spot, as FIFA will make sure the home nation gets through, although they are very skilled and won't need help. Cameroon is a tough team and so is Croatia and that means El Tri will have to play some of their best football to get through.
Group B has the defending champions in Spain and they are matched up with the Netherlands, Chile and Australia. Holland was right there with them last time and those two teams will be the favorites for that group to get to the knockout stages. Colombia plays against Greece, Japan and Ireland and that will be a tough group, while D is another doozy with England, Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica, meaning those teams will have to deal with Luis Suarez after his amazing Premier League season.
Group E has France looking to make a jump back after the disaster of 2010, while the Swiss lead Ecuador and Honduras and that could be another tough group. Bosnia-Herzegovina along with Argentina, Iran and Niger make up Group F, while the Group G list is the group of death with the United States, Portugal, Germany and Ghana. The Portuguese team has Cristiano Ronaldo, while the German team is strong and Ghana has knocked out the US in each of the last two World Cup tournaments. Group H has Belgium along with Russia, Korea and Algeria and they are the final group of the tournament. Everyone is looking to make it to the round of 16 in the knockout stages after the group stage starts up on June 12 with Brazil and Croatia.
Check here for the full list of World Cup groups heading into the Brazil tournament.