The World Cup 2014 tournament opened in Brazil with the host nation beating Croatia and that was the score of 3-1 after two goals from Neymar and now the schedule on TV from ESPN picks up and moves into Friday with Mexico and Cameroon, Spain and the Netherlands as well as Chile and Australia for Group A and Group B.
Brazil did not play their best game and gave up and own goal, but it was enough to get the win and now another favorite kicks into action with Spain playing on Friday and that matchup comes at 3 pm ET. Spain comes in as the defending champions and they also won the Euros and now they are set to matchup with the Netherlands on ESPN and that game comes after Mexico and Cameroon start the day on ESPN2 from Natal with their game at 12 pm noon.
Chile and Argentina finish off the group play for Friday and that match comes from Cuiaba at 6 pm ET and that also will be on ESPN2. The group stage continues through the weekend and into next week and on Saturday one of the most anticipated games is England taking on Italy in Manaus and that will be at the Amazon stadium and the debut of that venue should be an event in itself with all that went into it. That game is crucial for England after the way they performed in South Africa and they have a hard schedule and this is very important. The other group match with England and Italy is Uruguay and Costa Rica and that will be a tough draw to get out of and that makes winning the opening match even more crucial for these teams. Luis Suarez is looking to come back healthy and he could tip the scales for his nation in that group and Italy has been talked about as a dark horse as well.
Sunday has three matches and one includes Argentina and they are a favorite in the tournament and they have Lionel Messi and he could be the best player in the tournament. France matches up with Honduras and they have very high expectations coming in and that will be in Porto Alegre and is at 3 pm ET, while the Swiss and Ecuador kick things off on Sunday at 12 pm noon.
The Monday matchups has the Group of death with Group G and that starts the schedule for the United States, Portugal, Germany and Ghana. The other match has Iran and Nigeria and it opens with Germany and Portugal playing at 12 pm noon, while Iran and Nigeria are at 3 pm ET before the USA plays Ghana in Natal.
