How to Follow World Cup Soccer

The FIFA World Cup, one of the world's premier sporting events, determines the world's best soccer team under the watchful eyes of millions of fans from across the globe. FIFA organizes the World Cup every four years, with different countries submitting bids to host the tournament. To determine which teams compete for the World Cup, qualifiers begin 3 years prior. Here's how to follow the World Cup.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Watch the qualifiers. In the qualifying rounds the world is divided into six regions. FIFA allots each region or zone a certain number of places in the World Cup tournament based on the number of teams in that region and their relative strength.
2. Follow professional soccer to keep an eye on your favorite players in the years between World Cup tournaments. National team players often play outside of their own country in leagues such as MLS (USA), Premiere League (England), Serie A (Italy) and the Bundesliga (Germany).
3. Cheer for your favorite teams during group play. In the first stage of the World Cup, teams are divided into groups of four and then play each team in their own group. After each team plays three games, the two teams with the best record move on to the knockout stage.
4. Plot your favorite team's path through the knockout stage. The first round pairs each group winner against a second place team from another group. From there the tournament proceeds according to a predetermined bracket.
5. See some of the most appealing soccer in the final rounds of the World Cup. At this stage you can see that soccer truly is "the beautiful game."

Tips & Warnings

• The losers of the semifinal games play each other for third place.