{"id":15630,"date":"2014-06-11T23:37:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T13:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=15630"},"modified":"2014-06-11T23:39:04","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T13:39:04","slug":"the-fat-website-world-cup-2014-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=15630","title":{"rendered":"The FAT Website World Cup 2014 Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagworldcup2014.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15632\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagworldcup2014.jpg\" alt=\"tagworldcup2014\" width=\"600\" height=\"75\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagworldcup2014.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/tagworldcup2014-300x37.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/worldcup2014banner.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15633\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/worldcup2014banner.jpg\" alt=\"worldcup2014banner\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/worldcup2014banner.jpg 720w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/worldcup2014banner-300x168.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15634\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\" alt=\"untitled-40mshg\" width=\"800\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The FIFA World Cup is the greatest international competition in all of football and the most watched sporting event in the world. FIFA (F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de Football Association) is the sports global sporting authority and organiser of the tournament. Held every four years (two years after the last Olympic Summer Games) in the European Football Leagues&#8217; summer off-seasons (historically, at least), the Brazilian event this year is the 20th iteration of the competition. This will be the second time Brazil has hosted the competition having previously done so in 1950. Since the controversy over Germany\u2019s bid winning the rights to host the 2006 tournament over that of South Africa FIFA decided to cycle the hosts between continents (or more precisely between each of the continental football federations) for at least the next two events in 2010 and 2014. This meant that the hosts of this year\u2019s competition would definitely be in South America. CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America voted unanimously to choose Brazil as they were the only candidate with a formal bid submitted after some cursory bids from Colombia and Argentina were withdrawn. The teams compete to win the FIFA World Cup Trophy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15634\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\" alt=\"untitled-40mshg\" width=\"800\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">32 nations from a total of 207 FIFA recognised states across the world qualified for the Finals competition. The number of nations coming from each Continental Confederation varies depending upon the overall strength and number of competitors from each of those regions:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8211; Africa (CAF): 5<br \/>\n&#8211; Asia (including Australia) (AFC): 4<br \/>\n&#8211; Europe (UEFA): 13<br \/>\n&#8211; North and Central America (CONCACAF): 4<br \/>\n&#8211; Oceania (OFC): 0<br \/>\n&#8211; South America (CONMEBOL): 6<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15634\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\" alt=\"untitled-40mshg\" width=\"800\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"_5pbx userContent\" data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">If you haven&#8217;t signed up for a World Cup fantasy football league yet, you&#8217;re welcome to join:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Search for the league &#8216;<em>BrazilNuts2014<\/em>&#8216;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15634\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\" alt=\"untitled-40mshg\" width=\"800\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Here&#8217;s a video of John Oliver ripping on FIFA and their rampant corruption<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DlJEt2KU33I\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15634\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\" alt=\"untitled-40mshg\" width=\"800\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>THE GROUPS<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupajdo1d.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15640\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupajdo1d.gif\" alt=\"groupajdo1d\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>Mexico finished fourth in the North American qualifying group (I can&#8217;t even name three good North American football teams) winning just two games out of ten.\u00a0 This was enough to enter a play off against Wellington Phoenix to qualify for the World Cup.\u00a0 That seems totally unfair \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Anyway, this seems like it should be a cakewalk for Brazil.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Brazil, Croatia<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupbn3pa4.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15641\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupbn3pa4.gif\" alt=\"groupbn3pa4\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Why couldn&#8217;t we have gotten Group E honestly.\u00a0 This is the <strong>GROUP OF DEATH <\/strong>of the tournament.\u00a0 Spain and Netherlands are obvious favourites but Chile are no slouches either and could spring a surprise.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Socceroos and Spain (Socceroos finish top)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupcy9ols.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15642\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupcy9ols.gif\" alt=\"groupcy9ols\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Columbia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>Its pretty sweet how far Japan have come since they first qualified in 1998.\u00a0 Almost their entire squad plays in Europe now!\u00a0 Still, this is a tough group and I expect every South American team to be a real chance to advance from the group stage.\u00a0 I read that Ivory Coast have pay disputes so hopefully they will be utter rubbish.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Japan, Columbia<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupdy4qoo.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15643\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupdy4qoo.gif\" alt=\"groupdy4qoo\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>This group will be playing in Manaus which is the multi million dollar 40,000 seat stadium they built in a tiny inaccessible part of Brazil that has the population of Adelaide.\u00a0 I hope Italy advance because Balotelli.\u00a0 And I hope England aren&#8217;t as dull as the last World Cup.\u00a0 Remember the Algeria game.\u00a0 Goddamn.\u00a0 So boring.\u00a0 I couldn&#8217;t believe it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Italy, Uruguay<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupeljrvg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15644\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupeljrvg.gif\" alt=\"groupeljrvg\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>The most rubbish group ever.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Paul Pogba, Honduras<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupfadrlh.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15645\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupfadrlh.gif\" alt=\"groupfadrlh\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Argentina, Bosnia Herzagovina, Iran, Nigeria<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>All of these countries are filled with angry dudes with guns.\u00a0 Except Argentina which has llamas and Messi.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Argentina, Bosnia Herzagovina<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupggjrci.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15646\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/groupggjrci.gif\" alt=\"groupggjrci\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Germany, Portugal, Ghana, United States<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>Landon Donovan didn&#8217;t make the squad \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 Maybe Ronaldo won&#8217;t be totally rubbish on the World Stage for once.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Germany, Portugal<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/grouphhmps2.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15647\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/grouphhmps2.gif\" alt=\"grouphhmps2\" width=\"436\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Notes:\u00a0 <\/strong>I like Belgium.\u00a0 They awarded Australian goal keeper Matthew Ryan with the Keeper of the Year award in his debut season.\u00a0 Also, they are responsible for Tintin.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Apparently South Korea are terrible nowadays.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>To Advance:\u00a0 <\/strong>Belgium, Russia<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15634\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/untitled-40mshg.gif\" alt=\"untitled-40mshg\" width=\"800\" height=\"10\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>THE SOCCEROOS<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/84d882a6e4aa7176056b8ddd7d74d0a6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15648\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/84d882a6e4aa7176056b8ddd7d74d0a6.jpg\" alt=\"84d882a6e4aa7176056b8ddd7d74d0a6\" width=\"700\" height=\"923\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/84d882a6e4aa7176056b8ddd7d74d0a6.jpg 700w, http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/84d882a6e4aa7176056b8ddd7d74d0a6-227x300.jpg 227w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">We drew a stupidly hard group and we&#8217;re going to get absolutely smashed.\u00a0 Everyone knows this.\u00a0 Our team has really suffered since 2006 as the next two national coaches after Gus Van Hiddink both had incredibly short sighted mandates to qualify for the next tournament without any incentive to blood young talent.\u00a0 In the last World Cup we had the oldest team in the competition.\u00a0 Now we come into this tournament the lowest ranked team.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The squad is managed by Brisbane Roar&#8217;s former coach Ange Postecoglou who was brought in after we lost 6-0 in two consecutive games against Brazil and France.\u00a0 He has had 3 friendly games to rebuild the squad.\u00a0 The Golden Generation (Kewell, Schwarzer, Neill) have retired.\u00a0 Some of our best young players are injured (Rogic, Kruse).\u00a0 Ange has not been dealt a good hand.\u00a0 Fortunately, the FFA will give him time to develop the team long after this World Cup is over.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I gotta say, it is absolutely awesome to see Roar defender Ivan Franjic get selected and have an opportunity to play on the world stage against the best players in the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Our game plan appears to be knocking it out to the wing and then Halloran and Oar will get it in the mixer and hopefully Timmy will head it in.\u00a0 Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I&#8217;d be happy if we got <em>a<\/em> goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FAT Website preview of World Cup 2014 in Brazil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2003,491,504,1719],"class_list":["post-15630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-brazil","tag-socceroos","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15630"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15651,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15630\/revisions\/15651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}