The Ivory Coast and Japan are playing live on the World Cup schedule and the game is live on ESPN and live streaming on WatchESPN at 9 pm ET from Recife and weather will be a factor and it will be at the Arena Pernambuco and comes after Italy won over England and now these two teams matchup and Japan comes in after being the first team to qualify for Brazil 2014 and they are looking to win the first group match.
Japan opens with this match and then matches up with Greece in Natal next and they opened with a loss against Colombia, while that match will be their third to play. Yaya Toure will be the main focus for the Coast and they are looking to advance out to the knockout stage and they come in playing against Japan and then will matchup against Colombia in Brasilia and the last match is against Greece. The team also has Didier Drogba and two Toure brothers and that makes them a very tough team to play against and this comes after Mario Balotelli scored the winner for Italy against England.
England and Italy played live on the World Cup schedule on Saturday as Group D kicks off and the live coverage comes from ESPN and the game has a live stream on WatchESPN and the matchup is in Manaus at the Amazon Stadium and that will be the debut of the arena as Wayne Rooney, Mario Balotelli and everyone try for a win in their first match in Brazil for the tournament.
England is looking to advance to the knockout stage and getting a win here would give them a much better chance at doing that and they have a very hard group to get out of with Uruguay, Costa Rica and Italy and points here are crucial. The team of course has not won a World Cup since 1966 and they have not been able to make the final during that span and they come in with 17 players making their debut and that means lots of changes, but they also have plenty of talent. Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard are key players for the team and they will have to be leaders along with Frank Lampard on the squad from Roy Hodgson.
Rooney has been solid in World Cup play and he is the top player for the team and he has experience along with Gerrard, who is coming off of a great season with Liverpool and this is likely his last chance with England along with Lampard, who is the grizzled vet of this group. England opens with the match in Manaus against Italy and they then will play against Uruguay and that will be in Sao Paulo, while Costa Rica is the final matchup and that will be on June 24 in Belo Horizonte.
Check here for the England and Italy live coverage from the World Cup on ESPN.