The World Cup 2014 opens with Brazil and Croatia playing on the schedule and the first match is live on ESPN from TV and on the WatchESPN website at 4 pm ET and is the opener of the tournament as Neymar and the rest of the team try to start off Group A with a win and they are one of the overall favorites in the tournament and this game will be from Sao Paulo.
Brazil comes in as one of the top favorites with Germany, Argentina and the defending champions in Spain and they are a five time Cup champion and are looking to win the first in over 10 years since they won it back in 2002. Neymar leads a very skilled team with Willian, Oscar, Ramires and David Luiz and they will be looked at as one of the teams that can go all the way. The team won over Spain in the Confederations Cup in 2013 and now they have the chance to win on their home soil and this is the first time in decades that the tournament has been in Brazil.
-----MORE WORLD CUP COVERAGE: Full Schedule For ALL Games, Favorites For the Knockout Round, PREDICTIONS on Who Wins Brazil 2014----
The team won over Spain and that was very big and now they are looking to be the first host nation to win the Cup since France did it and it would be very impressive here to see them win again. The team opens up with Croatia at Arena Corinthians ate Sao Paulo and then they play against Mexico at Fortaleza and then the team has Cameroon in Brasilia and those matches will all be important. Brazil has a tough group, but they should be able to get out of it since they are a great team and this host nation and that means Cameroon, Mexico and Croatia are basically playing for one spot.
The tournament has been hit with protests and tons of unhappy people with FIFA, but they make so much money they don't care about the working class in Brazil and now the teams will try and win out and Brazil Croatia is the only match of the first day. Neymar plays with Barcelona and is one of the highest profile players in the world, while Chelsea had Oscar this season and he could be a playmaker here in the first matchup. Luiz Felipe Scolari had a tragic car accident happen to his family just before the Cup and now the team has to overcome that as well.
The toughest group in the entire draw is Group G and that is being called the group of death for this tournament and that has the United States, Germany, Ghana and Portugal in it. The US team had their best year ever in 2013 and looked poised to make a move at the 2014 World Cup, but now they would be lucky to even make it out of the opening stage and into the knockout round.
Check here for the Brazil and Croatia live stream coverage from ESPN for the World Cup.
