Jonathan Larbi

2/18/15
Period 4
FIFA World Cup
Introduction
This is one of the most expensive competitions in the world. It takes
place every four years and 32 rhapsodic nations prepare to take its famous
trophy home for glory. Guess what is it The FIFA World Cup! The World Cup is
an amazing tournament put together by the FIFA organization. The history of
the it this tournament makes it amazing, there are only a limited amount of
teams that can go, to get to the World Cup your nation needs to make it
through the World Cup Qualification, and there are many rules to the game.
Last of all, the passion of the game is what makes it such a great tournament
History of the FIFA World Cup
After FIFA was organized for a couple of year, they wanted to have a
world competition. So on May 28, 1928, FIFA had a meeting in Amsterdam to
announce the first official World Cup. The first FIFA World Cup was held at the
Estadio Centenario in Montevideo on July 28, 1930. At that time, Uruguay
was a leading power in the Olympics so they won the very first world cup in
1930. Four years later, the World Cup was held in Italy and because of what
was going on there were only 16 finalists,but Italy prevailed and took home
the title. After that, in 1938, Rimet, the President of FIFA at that
time, was able to see his country, France host the World Cup too.
Yet, there were some holdbacks, but Italy once again defended the
title. On July 1, 1946, the FIFA congress had a meeting to give a
present to Rimet, who had been president of FIFA for a quarter of a
century. It was a jubilee gift and from then on, the World Cup trophy
was also called the Jules Rimet Trophy.
This is the World Cup
How Many Teams go to the World Cup
Trophy, otherwise know
In the World Cup, there are 32 teams from the 6 continental
as the Jules Rimet
Trophy named after FIFA zones excluding Antarctica. 5 teams come from Africa, 13 teams

come from Europe, 4 teams come from Asia with an exception

with 1 team from Oceania, 3 teams from North and Central America with an
exception with South America who send 4. The exception is that the team in
the fifth best place for qualifying in Asia has to play the best team from
Oceania and the winner goes to the World Cp. On the other hand, it is the

same thing with North and South America. North America's fourth best team
has to play South America's fifth best team to get a spot too. Finally, the host
gets an automatic trip to the World Cup. All of these teams have to get to the
World Cup through the World Cup Qualifiers.
World Cup Qualifiers
The World Cup Qualifiers is a series of games a nation has
to go through in order to make it to the World Cup. All nations
in a continental zone will play in the World Cup Qualifiers, but
only a limited amount of them will actually make it to the
World Cup. Actually, the World Cup Qualifications start out
with over 200 teams and after some rounds they degenerate
Bosnia and Herzegovina
to 32 teams. They are pretty much like the World Cup itself:
is celebrating their
victory to make it to the
All the teams are put into groups depending on how many FIFA
World Cup for the first
nations are competing to make it to the World Cup. Just like
time.
the World Cup, if you win your team gets 3 points, if you tie a
game, you get 1 point, and if you lose your game, you get 0
points. For some continental zones, if you are the winner of your group, you
go to the World Cup, but in others, if you make 2nd place you go to the
knockout stage to determine a smaller amount of eligible teams to go to the
World Cup. Just in 2014, Bosnia and Herzegovina made it to their first World
Cup by getting first place in the UEFA Group G.
World Cup Rules

As you know, the World Cup starts out with 32 teams, but then
comes to 2 finalists, and then a World Cup Champion. After the
32 teams are made, they are put into 8 groups of four. Then just
like the World Cup qualifications, you play every team and if you
win, you get 3 points, a tie, you get 1 point and if you lose, 0
points. As soon as every team has played 2 teams in their group,
thee last game is the tie-breaker. In this match, you and your
This is a picture of the
opponent play at the same time as the other two teams in your
knockout stage of the
group, but in different stadiums. Then the top 2 teams in every
2014 World Cup in
group advance to the knockout stage. In the knockout stage,
Brazil.
once you lose, your nation is eliminated from the competition
unless you are in the semi-finals. In addition, if the 2 nations
playing each other in the knockout tie at the end of the 90 minutes, they
have to play extra time. If they are still tied after two 15 minute halves, they
go to penalty kicks to get a winner. So, after the group stage, the first
knockout stage is the Round of 16. Next is the quarterfinals, then the semifinals, the third place game is played next, and last of all the two finalist play
in the finals.
The Passion of the World Cup
The World Cup is a tradition for the world that will last for many years.
Many superpowers have risen over the years and many new ones are
catching up to. The thing is that the competition isn't just about the players,
it is also about the fans. The only reason why some fans have to travel more
than 2000 miles just to support a nation is remarkable. It tells us that the
passion for the game is so irresistible that people must come to cheer their
teams. Just take US for instance. The closest US had ever been to touching
the Jules Rimet Trophy was in 1930, when they got third place. Now, the
farthest they have been is to the quarterfinals. In 2014 the US national team
made it to the knockout stage after getting 2nd place in the Group of
Death, but when they got to the Round of 16, Belgium beat them by a
score of 1-2. Yet, fans every four years continue to support them, hoping
that one year that they will be crowned champions. Another example, is
Brazil. In the 2014 World Cup they were the host and the most favored team
to win everything. The sad thing is that in the semifinals, they lost to
Germany 1-7. If you were watching the game you would be heartbroken. All
their fans, ready to see Brazil take home the glory are crying and wailing.
They can't believe that their nation is losing by a huge margin to this
ferocious opponent. Even though, Brazil got 4th place, their fans still

applauded them and gave support. It shows that the passion of the game will
never be forgotten.
Conclusion
The World Cup to me is an amazing tournament that takes four years
to prepare for. Even though everyone mainly focuses on Men's World Cup,
there is the Women's and U-20 plus the U-17 World Cup.
Many channels broadcast the World Cup, but the main
station is ESPN. I encourage you to watch the Women's
World Cup that is happening in the summer. It is an amazing
experience to watch teams from the whole world competing
to crowned the top nation in the globe. The history of this
World Cup is the foundation of what many generations is to
This is a picture of US
captain, CLint Dempsey come. Then there are the 32 teams who compete for glory.
scoring the first goal for Next, there is the rules that determine the winner. Finally, the
the US in the Group of
passion of the game is the icing to the cake. If you want
Death.
anymore information about the world cup go to fifa.com.
Glossary
rhapsodic-extremely enthusiastic
FIFA- the official organization for soccer
continental zones-the six zones where nearby nations compete for World
Cup Qualifiers and other continental tournaments
nation-a territory or country by itself
FIFA nations- eligible national teams declared by FIFA to play in the World
Cup or other continental tournaments
knockout stage- the stage after the group stage that once a nation loses,
they are eliminated
Group of Death-the select group in the World CUp that is the toughest to
advance from
Sources
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/football/bosnia-have-qualified-for-the-firstworld-cup-finals-in-their-history-after-1-0-win-to-lithuania/story-fnii0fc41226740676706
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/sports/164558-world-cup-breaks-onlinestreaming-records.html
http://www.kids-play-soccer.com/images/Capturewcbracket.jpg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/16/clint-dempsey-goal-usa-worldcup_n_5501196.html

Works Cited
Greenburg, Chris. "Clint Dempsey's Goal Gets U.S. off to Dream World Cup
Start."
Huff Post Sports. Huffington Post, 7 June 2014. Web. 18 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/16/
clint-dempsey-goal-usa-world-cup_n_5501196.html>.