World Cup
KUALA LUMPUR: Football is in Malaysians' DNA and despite the 11 hours time difference between Brazil and Malaysia, surely many football fans here watched the opening match between Brazil and Croatia earlier today.
However, some of you may not be familiar or even interested in the much-hyped about World Cup 2014.
But with the match expected to go on for a month, it seems that the football craze is not about to cool off anytime soon.
So, for those who are clueless about this, here are 10 easy to digest facts about the tournament:
1. Brazil was chosen as the host for World Cup 2014, on October 30, 2007.
2. The 12 host cities are Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Sao Paulo, Fortaleza, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Salvador, Recife, Cuiaba, Manaus, Natal and Curitiba.
3. Brazil was supposed to complete the 12 hosts stadiums on December 31, 2013 but half of them were not ready by the given time.
4. Thanks to Google Maps, fans can get avirtual tour of all 12 stadiums.
5. Days before the opening ceremony, the event was marred by numerous strikes and protests. Those against the event said they would prefer the $11 billion (RM35 billion) in government spending for the games to be allocated for transport, schools and healthcare.
6. Twitter introduced the three-letter hashflags for each countries, and is set to make the World Cup as the most tweeted global event, beating London 2012 Olympic Games.
7. The opening round, also known as the group stage, is a round-robin format with eight groups of four teams each. Top teams and teams from the same geographic region are kept separate.
8. Only two teams from each group will advance to the second round.
9. The Round of 16 (second round) is scheduled to start on June 28, quarter-finals on July 4, semi-finals on July 8 and the final on July 13. The play-off for third place is July 12.
10. Three teams from Group B (Spain, Netherlands, Chile, and Australia) have a shot to reach the finals.
Astro Awani
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