This summer's World Cup is quickly getting closer, with just two months to go until the first kickoff. EA Sports has been feeding us information on their tie-in game, 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, today giving us a look at the stadiums that will host the tournament with some high-quality images.
This World Cup will be unique in the amount of travel teams have to do, which will like prove a detriment to several national sides. The stadiums are far enough apart that games will take place in what are essentially separate biomes--a team could be playing in a wildly different temperature and climate from one game to the next.
Brazil is very large and has a multitude of terrain types, which is expected to affect results. The USMNT, for example, will have to travel a greater distance in the group stages than any other side in the tournament, with their trips totalling nearly 9,000 miles.
Another concern is that the beautiful in-game stadiums pictured here may not even be finished in time. There have been constant reports that Brazil is behind schedule on stadium and infrastructure construction, and many are skeptical they will finish in time for the tournament. Some of them are complete already, like the famous Maracanã, but new ones being built specifically for the World Cup are in danger of not being ready in time.
The need to rush construction only makes things worse, as dangerous working conditions have been reported multiple times, in addition to a number of on-site deaths. Protests (sometimes aggressive or violent ones) have also broken out in the country against the government spending exorbitant sums on the tournament while people are facing much larger problems.
The protests may rear their head again and cause problems at the tournament, and the government is running the risk of not having the stadiums complete. All of that said, at least the football on display should be top quality--there are several truly elite sides competing--and we have these great images depicting what the grounds hopefully will look like. The demo for 2014 FIFA World Cp Brazil is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.
