The World Is Watching: Catch Up Before the Cup

The teams have arrived. The players are ready. The eyes of the world have turned to Brazil to watch the world's most popular sports tournament. On Thursday, the fans will enter Arena Corinthians in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to watch Brazil and Croatia take the first shots in a month-long clash of nations — four years in the making.

But before the World Cup kick-off on Thursday, you need to get caught up with all of the drama — so we've compiled our extensive coverage to date in one handy guide to get you primed for the most-watched sports tournament in the world.

Get to know the gripping storylines, the incredibly talented players to watch, the team drama that could explode under the pressure of the eyes of the world, the joy at the cost of looming heartbreak — all of which is about to unfold over the next four sport-filled weeks.

Getting to know the group stage

In the first round of the tournament, eight groups of four teams compete to move onto the single-elimination bracket. Each team in a group plays each other once, and the teams with the two best records advance into the round of 16.

A large part of the early excitement comes from the sweeps and upsets in the group stage. So we exhaustively analyzed the eight groups and the teams going head to head so you know what to watch for in the first few weeks of tournament play.

The talent on the pitch

Throughout the tournament, these are the names you'll hear repeated over and over again — usually in the form of chants after unbelievable displays of skill. We've identified the electrifying players to watch, including venerated players like Lionel Messi of Argentina and young powerhouses like Neymar of Brazil.

And if tour de force talent is not enough to get you excited, we bring you the best, most dramatic storylines to follow throughout the tournament — Can Messi finally clinch a World Cup title, and truly become "greatest player in his generation"? Or will Brazil win its record sixth title on home turf?

The drama of the U.S. Men's National Team

If being in the "Group of Death" wasn't enough for the U.S. Men's National Team (USMNT) to think about, the drama surrounding Landon Donovan's absence when the final roster was selected was.

We sat down with Donovan before World Cup training camp began and continued to follow the storyline after he was cut from the team, talking to the USMNT's star player Clint Dempsey and the team's surprise about Donovan's omission from the final roster.

After the team's shaky performance against Azerbaijan in a friendly match on May 28, whether or not the USMNT is ready to face the "Group of Death" head-on and make it through to the round of 16 remains to be seen.