The World Cup started up on Thursday in Brazil and the host nation won the opener and now Spain and the Netherlands are playing on Friday and the matchup on ESPN and WatchESPN with a live stream starts at 3 pm and is the start of Group B and will be from Salvador and comes with Mexico playing Cameroon and Chile playing against Australia.
The game is a huge matchup for Spain and these are the best two teams in Group B and even with a loss today, the Dutch should be able to advance after making a run last time around. The team has Robin Van Persie and the Spanish side also has a number of high profile players, including Diego Costa, Xavi Hernandez and David Villa and they will need everyone to step up on Friday for the matchup. This is one of the most anticipated matchups of the entire group stage and it is a rematch of the final from 2010 and Spain won that.
This rarely happens in the group stage and it's even more unlikely in the first game, but here we are and the Dutch are ready to start things off fast for the matchup. The team is hooping Van Persie is fully healthy and he should be well rested after missing a month of the Premier League season and that could be huge for the team and while the Netherlands is very good, they fell out of the top part of the rankings and that is why they matched up in this group when the draw was made. Netherlands fell out at the Euros and Spain won that as well and now new Manchester United manager Luis Van Gaal will need to find a way to get things going.
The Netherlands is a strong team and they have won nine of ten games in qualifying on their way to the World Cup and they also looked good in the friendly matchups. Spain has a great line up with Cesar Azpilicueta, Sergio Ramos, Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba along with Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Silva and Xavi and they are strong from front to back and they will need all of that going to get the win on Friday and that will be big for them as they move into the group stage.
The Group A and Group B matchups will finish on Friday and it comes after Brazil won against Croatia in the opening match and that saw a controversial penalty called. Spain and Brazil come in as favorites with Germany and Argentina in this tournament and Brazil got two goals from Neymar in the game and now they are atop of the group for the time being. The host nation has not lost the opener in some time, but Brazil started off with a scare after getting an own goal, but Neymar tied it up and then gave the team a lead with the controversial penalty later on. Spain is one of the favorites in the tournament and they will keep that going if they can get an opening win against the Dutch and this could be the best matchup of the group stages.
Check here for the World Cup coverage live from Brazil with the Spain and the Netherlands match live from South America on ESPN.
