FIFA World Cup 2018 FAVORITES

The excitement of FIFA World Cup 2018 Russia continues into the Round of 16 with top 2 players of each group advances to the playoffs in different cities in Russia. The world's most popular sporting event is already running for two weeks already and will continue for another two weeks until which another new world champion is celebrated into the world stage. Not only bookmakers are placing their bets for which team they will want to win but also some psychic animals also participates in predicting the winners of the tournament's matches one of the popular psychic is Paul the Octopus which predicted Spain as the FIFA World Cup 2010 Champion and this year 2018 it is the deaf cat Achilles which is making waves in predicting the winners in the tournament's matches. Watchful Eyes Of A Silhouette has its own favorite in the tournament and here it is.



Favorite Teams

Argentina 
Brazil
Denmark
England
France
Portugal
Spain
Sweden


Favorite Forwards

Artem Dzyuba - Russia
Mohammad Al-Sahlawi - Saudi Arabia
Luis Suarez - Uruguay
Edinson Cavani - Uruguay
Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal
Andre Silva - Portugal 
David Silva - Spain
Jefferson Farfan - Peru
Edison Flores - Peru
Gonzalo Higuain - Argentina
Lionel Messi - Argentina
Sergio Aguero - Argentina
Mario Mandzukic - Croatia
Neymar - Brazil
Douglas Costa - Brazil
Mario Gomez - Germany
Marco Fabian - Mexico
Romelo Lukaku - Belgium
Harry Kane - England
Blas Perez - Panama
Luis Tejada - Panama
Luis Muriel - Colombia
Miguel Borja - Colombia
Shinji Okazaki - Japan
Mousa Sow - Senegal
Sadio Mane - Senegal


Favorite Midfielders

Mohammed Elneny - Egypt
Taisir Al-Jassim - Saudi Arabia
Cristian Rodriguez - Uruguay
Lucas Torreira - Uruguay
Joao Moutinho - Portugal
Sergio Busquets - Spain
Andres Iniesta - Spain
Koke - Spain
Thiago - Spain
William Kvist - Denmark
Christian Eriksen - Denmark
Paul Pogba - France
Blaise Matuidi - France
Ever Banega - Argentina
Angel Di Maria - Argentina
Luka Modric - Croatia
Ivan Rakitic - Croatia
John Obi Mikel - Nigeria
Casemiro - Brazil
Philippe Coutinho - Brazil
Paulinho - Brazil
Fernardinho - Brazil
Celso Borges - Costa Rica
Bryan Ruiz - Costa Rica
Sami Khedira - Germany
Toni Kroos - Germany
Mesut Ozil - Germany
Thomas Muller - Germany
Andres Guardado - Mexico
Giovani dos Santos - Mexico
Sebastian Larsson - Sweden
Gabriel Gomez - Panama
Anibal Godoy - Panama
James Rodriguez - Colombia
Keisuke Honda - Japan
Shinji Kagawa - Japan



Favorite Defenders

Diego Godin - Uruguay
Pepe - Portugal
Bruno Alves - Portugal
Gerard Pique - Spain
Nacho - Spain
Sergio Ramos - Spain
Simon Kjær - Denmark
Andreas Christensen - Denmark
Mathias Jørgensen - Denmark
Christian Ramos - Peru
Javier Mascherano - Argentina
Nicolas Otamendi - Argentina
Kári Árnason - Iceland
Thiago Silva - Brazil
Miranda - Brazil
Filipe Luis - Brazil
Oscar Duarte - Costa Rica
Francisco Calvo - Costa Rica
Kendall Waston - Costa Rica
Mats Hummels - Germany
Jerome Boateng - Germany
Hugo Ayala - Mexico
Hector Herrera - Mexico
Edson Alvarez - Mexico
Kim Min-woo - South Korea
Kim Young-gwon - South Korea
Jang Hyun-soo - South Korea
Victor Lindelöf - Sweden
Martin Olsson - Sweden
Thomas Meunier - Belgium
Fidel Escobar - Panama
Roman Torres - Panama
Cristian Zapata - Colombia
Santiago Arias - Colombia
Yerry Mina - Colombia
Gen Shoji - Japan
Tomoaki Makino - Japan
Maya Yoshida - Japan



Favorite Goalkeepers

Essam El-Hadary - Egypt
Fernando Muslera - Uruguay
Rui Patricio - Portugal
Pepe Reina - Spain
Hugo Lloris - France
Pedro Gallese - Peru
Danijel Subašić- Croatia
Vladimir Stojković - Serbia
Manuel Neuer - Germany
Guillermo Ochoa - Mexico
Jaime Penedo - Panama
David Ospina - Colombia
Łukasz Fabiański - Poland



Favorite Coaches

Juan Antonio Pizzi (Spanish) - for  Saudi Arabia 
Oscar Tabarez (Uruguayan) - for Uruguay
Jorge Sampaoli (Argentinian) - for Argentina
Herve Renard (French) - for Morocco
Zlatco Dalic (Croatian) - for Croatia
Tite (Brazilian) - for Brazil
Oscar Ramirez (Costa Rican) - for Costa Rica
Vladimir Petkovic (Bosnian) - for Switzerland
Fernando Hierro (Spanish) - for Spain
Joachim Low (German) - for Germany
Juan Carlo Osorio (Colombian) - for Mexico
Jose Pekerman (Argentinian-Colombian) - for Colombia



Favorite Referees

Nestor Pitana - Argentina
Clement Turpin - France
Gianluca Rocchi - Italy
Bakary Gassama - Gambia
Cuneyt Cakir - Turkey
Malang Diedhiou - Senegal
Alireza Faghani - Iran
Wilmar Roldan - Colombia
Damir Skomina - Slovenia
Cesar Arturo Ramos - Mexico



Photo Source:

Wikipedia

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 BRAZIL FINALS: IT'S SUPER MARIO'S GAME FOR GERMANY

Germany's Mario Goetze celebrates after scoring a goal against Argentina

Philipp Lahm lifts the FIFA World Cup trophy in front of head coach Joachim Loew celebrating Germany's win 

Goal keeper Manuel Neuer lifts the trophy 

 

Bastian Schweinsteiger comforts every star player of a team they defeated 

Germany National Soccer Team Homecoming 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - It's really a Super Mario's Game in Brazil. Germany's got its fourth World Cup trophy Sunday courtesy of a late goal in 113th minute of Mario Goetze through a pass from Andre Schurrle and make its way in past goal keeper Sergio Romero witnessed by a multitude of roaring Argentinians and some Germans supporting their players in the crowded Estadio Maracaña in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Argentina's pride and one of the most popular player in soccer Lionel Messi could not work out his swift moves only making missed opportunities while trying to overcome the highly organized German booters playing on their tactics. The team were congratulated by German chancellor Angela Merkel and Brazil President Dilma Rousseff in which the latter hand over the next staging of FIFA World Cup in 2018 in Russia to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. Germany also made history by being the first non-Latin American country to win in Latin American soil or the New World. All the previous FIFA World Cup stagings in Latin America or New World were all won by a Latin American country.

Most of Germany's FIFA World Cup wins happened in a year ending in 4 (1954, 1974, 2014) with the exception of 1990 in Italy. All the previous wins of Germany happened in Europe. CONGRATULATIONS GERMANY! Deutschland.


Photo Sources: 

Associated Press 
Getty Images 
Reuters

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 UPDATE: A DAY OF INFAMY FOR BRAZIL! SORRY LOSS TO GERMANY

Brazil's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari hides his face in shame after his team's humiliating defeat to Germany

one of Brazil's star player David Luiz cries playing a heart breaking loss to Germany 

THE VENGEANCE! In what can be called as the day of infamy and terror for Brazil, heart broken Brazilian fans watch in terror as their country losses to Germany in Estadio Mineirao in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. Germany finally defeats Brazil in a HUMILIATING 7-1 in what many called a rematch of the FIFA World Cup 2002 Finals in Japan. What a terrible punishment! I can't imagine the heart broken Brazilians faces as they watch in horror their country's defeat in their home turf. In 30 minutes alone 15 minutes short of a halftime, Germany already exploded 5 goals thanks to Thomas Mueller, Miroslav Klose, Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira that caused a massive walkout of Brazilian Fans in Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte and another two goals were made by German booter Andre Schuerrle in the second half of the game to secure their finals appearance. The lone goal by Brazil was in the last minute of the game courtesy of Oscar. Brazil had hope to redeem themselves to win the World Cup trophy as host from their humiliating lost to Uruguay in the finals of FIFA World Cup 1950 when Brazil first hosted the competition. Germany is just waiting for the winner in the match of Argentina vs. Netherlands while Brazil will just settle for a 3rd or 4th place. 



Photo Sources: 

Mario Tama, Getty Images 
Eddie Keogh, Reuters 
Ruben Sprich, Reuters 
Chris Brunskill Ltd, Getty Images 
Bruno Magalhaes, AP

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 BRAZIL UPDATE: TOP 4 Semifinalist Teams Revealed

With Argentina's lone goal courtesy of forward Gonzalo Higuain at 8 minutes of the match against Belgium and Netherland's barely won over Costa Rica in a penalty shout out, the top 4 teams playing for next week's semifinals are ready to make history or repeat the triumph they once had. Brazil will face Germany on Tuesday a match that will remind us of the 2002 World Cup Finals in Japan while the 2010 World Cup runner up Netherlands will see a tough game against two time World Cup champion Argentina the following day Wednesday. Brazil will play next week without their star player Neymar who suffered a sustained injury on his vertebrate and their team captain Thiago Silva who was issued a yellow card penalty. The Top Four (4) semifinalist teams were Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Netherlands. We hope that in the future Philippines can finally play in FIFA World Cup and even host it.

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 SPOTLIGHT: Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, Philippines BRAZIL OF THE PHILIPPINES

Barotac Nuevo is dubbed as the Football Capital of the Philippines because it is where the homegrown talents of unlimited potentials came from and since Iloilo is a soccer football province. National players who made a name and made countless of goals locally and internationally came from Barotac Nuevo as well as some of the finest coaches hired by other countries came from this small town in northeastern Iloilo, a west central province in the Philippines. Barotac Nuevo is touted as the Brazil of the Philippines followed by Santa Barbara town and La Paz district in Iloilo City.

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 UPDATE: Top 8 Quarter Finalists Team Revealed

 

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 Teams On The Knockout Stage and Pairings For The Finals

 Brazil National Football Team 

 

Germany National Football Team 

 

Netherlands National Football Team 

With last night's remaining match in the knockout stage July 1, the Top 8 quarter finalists were revealed. Argentina and Belgium, which won its respective matches against Switzerland and United States, completed the teams which advance for the quarterfinals. Argentina won by only a lone goal made by Argentinian midfielder Angel di Maria at the last extra minutes of the games sending home the Swiss team while Belgium dispatches its strong players to hit 2 goals in the extra minutes of the game after the full 90 minutes in the 93rd and 105th minutes courtesy of Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku respectively to earn the final ticket to the quarterfinals and ending the popular campaign of the United States in the World Cup but thanks to the lone goal courtesy of American midfielder Julian Green in the 107th minutes of the games as a consolation to the United States team. Argentina will face Belgium in the quarterfinals match on July 5. The quarterfinals will start on Friday, July 4 with former World Cup champions France and Germany will battle it out for a semifinal slot in the first match while the host country Brazil will take on the dedicated Colombia in the second match. The other two teams which will fight for the semifinals are Costa  Rica and Netherlands which will face each other on the second match on July 5. Good luck to all the teams!

FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil Update: Group Matches

Belgium vs. Russia match

Incredible performance from the United States yesterday June 22 in a match against Portugal giving a fierce battle that ends up in a 2-2 draw but the latter is in the bottom of group G in which they should win against Ghana on Thursday, June 26 because otherwise than that and if Germany will win in its match against United States on the same day they will be eliminated early from World Cup. On the other hand, Belgium beats Russia 1-0 to lead group H with 2 wins without any losses and Algeria defeat South Korea 4-2. Belgium will face South Korea on Thursday while Algeria faces Russia on the same date. Tough performances will follow as the Top 16 teams will be revealed. 

Iloilo City, Philippines

FIFA WORLD CUP 2014 UPDATE: Adios España! La Furia Roja Spain Booted Out Of FIFA World Cup 2014

Sergio Busquets of Spain reacts after a missed chance during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Group B match between Spain and Chile at Maracana on June 18, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

ADIOS España! FIFA WORLD CUP 2010 CHAMPION Spain booted out of FIFA World Cup 2014 Wednesday, June 18 by Chile 2-0. Chile advances to the next stage next week in Group B group stage elimination to arrange showdown against Netherlands which in turn defeat its own opponent Australia awhile ago 3-2. The Oranjes and Chile jointly lead Group B. Meanwhile Croatia easily defeat Cameroon 4-0 to eliminate the latter in Group A elimination round and say their goodbye to World Cup 2014. Croatia will face Mexico next week. 

La Furia Roja  coach Vicente del Bosque can't do anything against the intensity of the game as they bow down to Chile. Casillas, Iñiesta, Ramos and Castro can only weep as they watch the Chileans romp their way to victory. ‪#‎fifa2014‬ ‪#‎worldcup2014‬ ‪#‎worldcup‬ ‪#‎fifa‬ ‪#‎fifaworldcup2014‬ ‪#‎fifaworldcup2014brazil‬ ‪#‎worldcup2014brazil‬

FIFA World Cup 2014 Heats Up in Brazil

The world's biggest sporting event just next to Summer Olympic games and the world's most popular sport has drummed up in different cities of Brazil starting June 12 with the first match between the host country Brazil against Croatia with the former winning the game. Mexico, Netherlands, Chile, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Italy, Switzerland, France, Argentina, Germany and United States have so far win their first game against their equally strong opponents in their respective groups. Twelve stadiums (seven new and five renovated) in different cities across Brazil will be the playing venue of thirty-two (32) participating countries. The finals will be on July 13 in Rio de Janeiro. Spain is the current FIFA World Cup Champion 2010 in South Africa.


Photo Sources:

community.futureshop.ca
www.bushwickdaily.com
www.sjearthquakes.com
www.zimbio.com

FIFA Please Support The Iloilo FC

     I would like to call the attention of the FIFA, to give financial support to our very promising football players who are poor yet have huge potential for greatness in the world of soccer – the Iloilo FC here in Iloilo, Philippines. We already produced an outstanding football player in the person of Paulino Alcantara who played for Barcelona FC in 1920s and we could produce more talented players like Alcantara if the much needed support is enough to maximize their full potentials. Hope my voice is heard loud and clear for them to take action.

FIFA World Cup Trivia

Performances by host nations
See also: National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup#Results of host nations
Six of the seven champions have won one of their titles while playing in their own homeland, the exception being Brazil, who finished as runners-up after losing the deciding match on home soil in 1950.

England (1966) and France (1998) won their only titles while playing as host nations. Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934) and Argentina (1978) won their first titles as host nations but have gone on to win again, while Germany (1974) won their second title on home soil.

Other nations have also been successful when hosting the tournament. Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), Korea Republic (fourth place in 2002), Mexico (quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986), and Japan (second round in 2002) all have their best results when serving as hosts. So far, all host nations have progressed beyond the first round.


Best performances by continental zones
See also: National team appearances in the FIFA World Cup#Results by confederation
To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by European and South American teams. The two continents have won nine titles apiece. Only two teams from outside these two continents have ever reached the semi-finals of the competition: USA (North, Central America and Caribbean) in 1930 and Korea Republic (Asia) in 2002. The best result of an African team is reaching the quarter-finals: Cameroon in 1990 and Senegal in 2002. Oceania has only been represented in the World Cup three times, and an Oceanian qualifier has reached the second round once, as Australia qualified as an Oceanian nation in 2005, although they moved to the Asian Football Confederation before the beginning of the tournament.

All World Cups won by European teams have taken place in Europe and the only teams to have won outside Europe come from South America. The only non-European team to win a tournament in Europe is Brazil in 1958. Only twice have consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent – when Italy and Brazil successfully defended their titles in 1938 and 1962 respectively.


Awards
Main article: FIFA World Cup awards
At the end of each World Cup, awards are presented to the players and teams for accomplishments other than their final team positions in the tournament. There are currently six awards:

The Golden Shoe (sometimes called the Golden Boot) for the top goalscorer (first awarded in 1982, but retrospectively applied to all tournaments from 1930); most recently, the Silver Shoe and the Bronze Shoe have been awarded to the second and third top goalscorers respectively;
The Golden Ball for the best player, determined by a vote of media members (first awarded in 1982); the Silver Ball and the Bronze Ball are awarded to the players finishing second and third in the voting respectively;
The Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 1994);
The FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team with the best record of fair play, according to the points system and criteria established by the FIFA Fair Play Committee (first awarded in 1978);
The Most Entertaining Team for the team that has entertained the public the most during the World Cup, determined by a poll of the general public (first awarded in 1994);
The Best Young Player Award for the best player aged 21 or younger at the start of the calendar year, decided by the FIFA Technical Study Group (first awarded in 2006).
An All-Star Team consisting of the best players of the tournament is also announced for each tournament since 1998.


Records and statistics

Main article: FIFA World Cup records
Two players share the record for playing in the most World Cups; Mexico's Antonio Carbajal and Germany's Lothar Matthäus both played in five tournaments. Matthäus has played the most World Cup matches overall, with 25 appearances. Brazil's Pelé is the only player to hold three World Cup winners' medals.

The overall leading goalscorer in World Cups is Brazil's Ronaldo, scorer of 15 goals in three tournaments. West Germany's Gerd Müller is second, with 14 goals in two tournaments. The third placed goalscorer, France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup. All his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament.

Brazil's Mário Zagallo and West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer are the only people to date to win the World Cup as both player and head coach. Zagallo won in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as head coach. Beckenbauer won in 1974 as captain and in 1990 as head coach. Italy's Vittorio Pozzo is the only head coach to ever win two World Cups. All World Cup winning head coaches were natives of the country they coached to victory.


Source: Wikipedia

FIFA World Cup History

FIFA World Cup first stadium for playing in Montevideo, Uruguay, 1930; map of countries best performance in FIFA world cup; the FIFA World Cup trophy


Source: Wikipedia

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, occasionally called the Football World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, because of World War II.
The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month – this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s). The World Cup is the most widely-viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 final.
Of the 18 tournaments held, seven nations have won the title. Brazil are the only team that have played in every tournament and have won the World Cup a record five times. Italy are the current champions and have won four titles, and Germany are next with three. The other former champions are Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.
The most recent World Cup was held in Germany in 2006. The next World Cup will be held in South Africa, between 11 June and 11 July 2010, and the 2014 World Cup will be held in Brazil.

History
Previous international competitions
The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, with the first international tournament, the inaugural edition of the British Home Championship, taking place in 1884. At this stage the sport was rarely played outside the United Kingdom. As football began to increase in popularity in other parts of the world at the turn of the century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics (however, the IOC has retroactively upgraded their status to official events), and at the 1906 Intercalated Games.
After FIFA was founded in 1904, there was an attempt made by FIFA to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside of the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure.
At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition. Planned by The Football Association (FA), England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain (represented by the England national amateur football team) won the gold medals. They repeated the feat in 1912 in Stockholm, where the tournament was organized by the Swedish Football Association.
With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organized the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup, and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title, and were given the trophy to keep forever, as per the rules of the competition.
In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event. This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and thirteen European teams, and won by Belgium. Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928.

First World Cup
Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship organised by FIFA. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions (as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era) and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.
The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total thirteen nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America.
The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 18 July 1930, and were won by France and USA, who beat Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of a crowd of 93,000 people in Montevideo, and became the first nation to win the World Cup.

Growth

After the creation of the World Cup, the 1932 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, did not plan to include football as part of the schedule due to the low popularity of the sport in the United States, as American football had been growing in popularity. FIFA and the IOC also disagreed over the status of amateur players, and so football was dropped from the Games. Olympic football returned at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but was now overshadowed by the more prestigious World Cup.
The issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 and 1938 tournaments, with Brazil the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions were cancelled due to World War II and its aftermath.
The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British participants. British teams withdrew from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against foreign influence on football, but rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation. The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. Uruguay won the tournament again by defeating the host nation Brazil in one of the most famous matches in World Cup history, which was later called the "Maracanazo" (Portuguese: Maracanaço).
In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria were absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when India, Scotland and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams. Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America, with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and South American teams. Until 1982, the only teams from outside Europe and South America to advance out of the first round were: USA, semi-finalists in 1930; Cuba, quarter-finalists in 1938; Korea DPR, quarter-finalists in 1966; and Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1970.
The tournament was expanded to 24 teams in 1982, and then to 32 in 1998, allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. The one exception is Oceania, who have never had a guaranteed spot in the tournament. In recent years, teams from these regions have enjoyed more success, and those who have reached the quarter-finals include: Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1986; Cameroon, quarter-finalists in 1990; Korea Republic, finishing in fourth place in 2002; and Senegal and USA, both quarter-finalists in 2002. However, European and South American teams have remained the stronger forces. For example, the quarter-finalists in 2006 were all from Europe or South America.
198 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and a record 204 will attempt to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Other FIFA tournaments

An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991 in the People's Republic of China. The women's tournament is smaller in scale and profile than the men's, but is growing; the number of entrants for the 2007 tournament was 120, more than double that of 1991.
Football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Unlike many other sports, the men's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top-level tournament, and since 1992, an under-23 tournament with each team allowed three over-age players. Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996, and is contested between full national sides with no age restrictions.
The FIFA Confederations Cup is a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup host nation(s) as a dress-rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country.
FIFA also organizes international tournaments for youth football (FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup), club football (FIFA Club World Cup), and football variants such as futsal (FIFA Futsal World Cup) and beach soccer (FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup).


Trophy
From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winner. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983, and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves.
After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven different countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974. The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory."
This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy until the next tournament and are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original.

Selection of Hosts
Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The choice of location gave rise to controversies, a consequence of the three-week boat journey between South America and Europe, the two centres of strength in football. The decision to hold the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing. The next two World Cups were both held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these, the 1938 FIFA World Cup, in France was controversial, as the American countries had been led to understand that the World Cup would rotate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the tournament.
Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup, to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the only tournament with multiple hosts. In 2010, South Africa will become the first African nation to host the World Cup. The 2014 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since 1978, and will be the first occasion where consecutive World Cups are held outside Europe.
FIFA receives eleven bids for 2018 and 2022 World Cups
The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Executive Committee. This is done under a single transferable vote system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. However, there have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future tournaments were announced at the same time, as will be the case for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament is rotated between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament. However, the policy of continental rotation will not continue beyond 2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups starting from 2018. This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder.

Media coverage
See also: List of FIFA World Cup broadcasters
The World Cup was first televised in 1954 and is now the most widely-viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding even the Olympic Games. The cumulative audience of all matches of the 2006 World Cup is estimated to be 26.29 billion. 715.1 million individuals watched the final match of this tournament (a ninth of the entire population of the planet). The 2006 World Cup draw, which decided the distribution of teams into groups, was watched by 300 million viewers.
Each FIFA World Cup since 1966 has its own mascot. World Cup Willie, the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot.


Source: Wikipedia

United States upsets Spain 2-0 in Soccer

Bloemfontein, South Africa - The world will surely take notice of this. The U.S. soccer team is in the final of the Confederations Cup, beating mighty Spain 2-0. Even more stunning, the Americans were on the verge of elimination and ready to head home last weekend before a reversal of fortune. On Wednesday, goals by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey led to an upset of the planet's top-ranked team. Call it a miracle on grass - maybe not the World Cup, but still an American soccer echo of the U.S. hockey team's upset of the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. By winning, the maligned United States advanced to its first men's FIFA final since starting play in 1916. Altidore scored in the 27th minute and Dempsey added a goal in the 47th as the Americans became the first team to defeat Spain since Romania in November 2006.

"It goes to show what hard work and commitment to each other can bring," said U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard, who made eight saves as he frustrated David Villa and Fernando Torres."Sometimes football is a funny thing." Now the U.S. will play defending champion Brazil or host South Africa in Sunday's final, which concludes a two-week tournament designed to prepare the organizers of next year's World Cup. "Regardless of whether we play Brazil or the Bafana Bafana, the challenge will be great," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said.

Midfielder Michael Bradley, son of the U.S. coach, will miss the final. He received a red card for a late challenge in the 87th minute, the third American ejection of the tournament. Still, American players had much to celebrate, given how slim the chances of such a U.S. victory seemed just a few days ago. Or any victory, for that matter. The 14th ranked Americans were soundly defeated in their first two games in this event. "I think it just shows that we can compete with the best. Now we need to do it on a consistent basis," U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra said.

Spain, the European champion, had set an international record with 15 straight victories and had tied Brazil's record unbeaten streak of 35 games from December 1993 to January 1996. The United States had been 1-7-1 against No.1 teams beating Brazil in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup and tying Argentina last summer in a exhibition at Giants Stadium. "This is an accident, a little step backward, Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said. "We have to look forward with optimism." Altidore got the first goal when he outmuscled Joan Capdevila, his teammate on Spain's Villareal, to send an 18-yard shot in off the hand of goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Capdvila thought he was fouled by Altidore, who had engaged in some trash texting a few days ago. "I told him,'Be careful of the USA.' And he tried to say I didn't understand Spanish, so it was just all fun and games," Altidore said. "We're teammates and we were just messing around with each other a little bit, but in the end we had the last laugh."

Altidore, a 19-year old forward from New Jersey , was so excited after he scored that he took off his jersey as he ran toward the stands in celebration, drawing a yellow card. It was the first goal against Spain in 451 minutes, since Turkey's Semith Senturk scored on April 1, and just the third goal the Spaniards allowed in 17 games dating to last summer's European Championship. Dempsey sealed the victory, scoring from 6 yards when he pounced on Landon Donovan's cross, which had bounced off Gerard Pique and the foot of Sergio Ramos. "There will ups and downs in any cycle," U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said. "I think this tournament makes that point very clearly. Tonight was a very big up."

The U.S. opened the tournament with a 3-1 loss to world champion Italy, then was outclassed by South American champ Brazil in a 3-0 defeat. The Americans advanced over the Italians on the second tiebreaker - total goals - only by beating Egypt 3-0 on Sunday as Brazil defeated the Azzurri by the same score. "Three games ago I think it would have been impossible to think about a night like tonight," Howard said. "We've had our fair share of critics, but we stood up and took it on the chin and kept going."

While the U.S. women have won two world championships, the men have long been outsiders and didn't even qualify for the showcase event between 1950 and '90. This ranked alongside the upset of Brazil as one of their top wins, just below victories over England in the 1950 World Cup, Portugal and Mexico in the 2002 World Cup and Colombia in the 1994 World Cup. Spain outshot the U.S. 29-9 in near-freezing conditions at the Free State Stadium, but Howard came up big every time he was needed. "We knew we had to pick and choose our moments to go forward," Dempsey said. "We're happy with the result and we know we're going to have our work cut out to get anything out o the final."

The United States had lost its three previous matches against Spain, including 1-0 in an exhibition on June 4 last year at Santander. But the Americans were boosted by Bocanegra, who had been sidelined since injuring a hamstring during a World Cup qualifier on June 6. He played left back instead of central defense. On this night, everything came together. "This win is huge for American soccer," Dempsey said. "This one is much sweeter because we were down and out, came back fighting."