Filed under: FIFA World Cup, International Soccer
Today the countdown truly begins — just 32 days until 32 nations convene in Africa’s southernmost country for sport’s greatest spectacle. To get the ball rolling, we’ve compiled 32 fun facts and figures to get you ready for the 19th edition of the World Cup, celebrating the greatest hands-free device ever invented: the game of soccer (pipe down, Ireland, we hear you).
32. The Format. U2’s Bono provides the basics in that ESPN promo, but just so we’re clear: 32 nations will be divided (we’re going to avoid the term “segregated” here) into eight four-team groups. The opening round is an intra-group round robin, or three matches for each team. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw. The top two teams in each group advance, and from there the 16 remaining sides play a single-elimination tournament.
31. The Host Nation … or Continent? With only African nations permitted to bid on this World Cup, South Africa beat out Egypt and Morocco in the voting back in May 2004. The World Cup marks the largest international sporting event ever to take place on the continent and five other African nations beside South Africa (which, as the host, receives an automatic bid) will be represented: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
African soccer has come a long way since 1974, when Zaire’s Ilunga Mwepu cleared a free kick as the Brazilians prepared to take it (Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, was the first sub-Saharan country to take part in the World Cup). Sixteen years later Cameroon upset defending champion Argentina in the opening game and since then, African nations have won three Olympic gold medals.
South Africa, however, lacks the proud legacy, not to mention talent, of a Cameroon or Ghana. In the eighteen previous World Cups, the host nation has advanced to the second round every time. That will be a tall order for South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, seeded in Group A along with Latin American powers Mexico and Uruguay and 2006 finalist France.
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