The wait since the last World Cup is almost over as Brazil gets ready to host this summers World Cup.

Excitement is growing around the world to watch the best players play on the highest stage of soccer.

Junior Callum Toohey said, “I’ve recently gotten into watching soccer and I’m really looking forward to watching the tournament this summer.”

In case you didn’t know, the World Cup is similar to the Olympics, in the sense that it only comes around once every four years.

The best players from each nation battle it out to see which country reigns supreme in the soccer world.

Spain was the winner of the 2010 South Africa World Cup and they are looking to be back-to-back champions this summer.

They won in a thrilling game against the Netherlands in South Africa that went into overtime to become world champions.

The favorites of the tournament this year are Spain, Brazil, Germany and Italy. Each country has a strong starting lineup and plenty of depth on their roster in case of any injuries.

Students around Dimond are excited to watch the World Cup this summer and many will be supporting team USA.

American soccer fans are disappointed this year because of the tough draw our team received.

The tournament works by beginning with a group stage. Groups consist of four teams, and each team plays each other once, at the end of this stage, the top two teams in the group move onto the knockout round, which is a bracket that starts with 16 teams and in order to move on, you must win.

The United States team got paired this year in a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana.

Germany is ranked second in the world and Portugal is ranked fourth. It also does not help that Ghana has knocked the United States out of the last two World Cups in a row.

It seems that the odds are stacked against them, but it does not destroy Junior Micah Rickard’s hopes for team USA.

Rickard said, “They got a tough draw, but the US is always a good underdog. They like that people think they can’t win, because it fuels and motivates them to prove them wrong, and change the world’s view of United States soccer.”

He is excited to root for the team and watch as many games as he can this summer.

Junior Jack Sedor has less optimistic hopes for Team USA this summer.

Sedor said, “I think the US will do really bad. Their competition is too tough for them to beat.”

He went on to explain that even though he thinks the US will be knocked out of the tournament early, he still looks forward to watching his favorite player Christiano Ronaldo represent the Portuguese team.

It will be a great tournament and will surely have a great finale.