The 2014 World Cup in Brazil starts on Thursday and the group draw bracket starts on TV with the home nation and Croatia at the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo for the match venue and the tournament will last for a month as 32 nations compete for the championship and ESPN has the main coverage with ABC, ESPN2, WatchESPN and ESPN2 also handling television and live stream coverage online.
Brazil and Croatia open things up for the tournament and for Group A on Thursday, June 12 and that match will be at 4 pm ET on ESPN and is the first game of the World Cup. Mexico and Cameroon are the other two teams in the group and they will play on June 13 at 12 pm ET from Natal and that match comes before Spain and the Netherlands start things off for Group B. The Spanish team comes in as defending champs and they start against the Dutch before Chile and Australia play at 6 pm ET from Cuiaba. The Group A draw is a tough one for the other teams apart from Brazil, with Cameroon, Mexico and Croatia battling it out for the other spot.
Brazil comes into the tournament as one of the favorites along with Spain, Germany and Argentina and they will be one of the toughest teams to face off against. The tournament is a worldwide event and everyone will have their eyes on Brazil and that could be a gift or a curse depending on how things go in the nation during the event. Group A continues through the two week stage with Brazil playing against Mexico and Cameroon to finish, while Mexico and Croatia play on June 23 to finish things off.
Group B is a tough set with Spain and the Netherlands along with Australia and Chile and the final game of that set has the Dutch playing against Chile in Sao Paulo. Group C has Colombia, Japan, Ivory Coast and Greece and that is a solid set with no clear dominant team, while Group D has some very anticipated matchups, including Uruguay and Costa Rica as well as England and Italy to start things off. The Italy and England matchup is in Manaus at the brilliantly planned Amazon Stadium and that group will finish off with England and Costa Rica on June 24.
The Group G draw is the group of death with Germany, Portugal, Ghana and the United States and that will be the hardest in the entire tournament. The United States had their best year in 2013 under Jurgen Klinsmann and they ended up in the toughest draw with a team that's a favorite in Germany, a team that has the best player in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo with Portugal and they also have to matchup with Ghana, who knocked out the US in the past two World Cup tournaments. The first games start on June 16 at 12 pm with Germany taking on Portugal and then at 6 pm from Natal, The United States opens with Ghana.
Check here for the World Cup schedule and USA team match times along with the group draw and match venues for all the GROUP STAGE games. ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and the WatchESPN website has the coverage.
