The World Cup 2014 group stage schedule for Brazil starts on Thursday and the time for the opening match is at 4 pm ET on ESPN with the channel coverage and a live stream will be on WatchESPN as Brazil plays Croatia and that opens the group draw schedule before everyone else plays and that will go over two weeks before the knockout round begins later in June.
The start of the tournament begins with Group A and that has Brazil and Croatia playing on Thursday and that is from the Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo and kicks off the tourney. 32 teams will shake out in the group rounds and Mexico and Cameroon finish off the first games for the group the following day and they play along with Spain and the Netherlands as well as Chile and Australia. Coming into the tournament, Germany, Brazil and Spain are the favorites to win.
The World Cup schedule for Group G has the United States, Portugal, Germany and Ghana in the group of death in Brazil 2014 and the Team USA Cup times start on Monday after the World Cup kicks off on Thursday and the first matchups for the team will be very important heading into the group stages and if the US can get a point out of their first game they have a small chance of getting to the knockout stage.
The United States had their best year with the USMNT in 2013 and that led to the toughest draw and the hardest travel schedule of the entire tournament. Some have criticized Jurgen Klinsmann for telling his team they will not win the World Cup, but he is using that as a motivating tool and for all anyone knows, it could work. The team has a near-impossible travel schedule on top of the fact that their opponents are so tough and that makes it very hard for the US to even get out of the group stage to get into the knockouts.
The United States was knocked out of the last two World Cup tournaments by Ghana and now they will have to open against that team, which at least means they won't knock the team out again, although losing that match would be devastating. The team needs to somehow get one point from their first match and if they can do that, they have a small chance at making it out of the round. Germany and Portugal open things up for the group and then the US plays against Ghana. The teams in the group also will have to deal with Cristiano Ronaldo and that will be tough, while Germany is considered one of the best teams overall in the tournament.
Click here for the World Cup group draw and schedule.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/worldcup/2014/group-schedule
