The draw happens in a few hours ... here's the World Cup 2014 Draw Simulator

Whatever group we were going to be in was going to be a tough one and, as predicted, we're in the group of death - Group B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia

Pretty much the worst case scenario. The two finalists from the last WC and the 15th ranked team in the world in their own neck of their woods.

Let's hope we go down swinging.

Here are all the groups and the associated matches (from wiki) ... Group stage

Tough, tough group for the Socceroos but we may surprise in one of the games. Tall order though!

All the games in our group ... times and dates are AEST ...

Saturday June 14 ... 5.00am

Spain / Netherlands

Saturday June 14 ... 8.00am

Chile / Australia

Thursday June 19 ... 2.00am

Australia / Netherlands

Thursday June 19 ... 8.00am

Spain / Chile

Tuesday June 24 ... 2.00am

Australia / Spain

Tuesday June 24 ... 2.00am

Netherlands / Chile

Personally, talking about such an event through Australian glasses lessens the event in my opinion.

So many exciting possibilities the whole way through. A great month of sport which will hopefully not be marred by external interference - justified to a degree it may be.

Personally, talking about such an event through Australian glasses lessens the event in my opinion.

So many exciting possibilities the whole way through. A great month of sport which will hopefully not be marred by external interference - justified to a degree it may be.

I've heard that the times and dates of the group games may be altered but going on what we've seen published, it's going to be quite a challenge to watch the majority of the games "live".

Apart from one later starting match, all the group games will start at 2.00am, 5.00am and 8.00am (our time) with the knockout phase matches on at 2.00am and 6.00am. The final will be on at 5.00am on Monday, July 14.

My view on Australia's participation is that it's just great to be a part of it! Even if we somehow managed to get out of our group (2nd place?), we'd almost certainly be up against the winner of group A (most likely, Brazil!)

Looking forward to all the games but group D (England, Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica) and group G (Germany, Portugal, the United States and Ghana) hold a lot of interest.

if they didn't have goalkeepers it would be worth watching

Absolute buckley's of making it out of the group. Getting any points at all will be a minor miracle, so I'll be wrapped if we get a point. South American teams perform very well at home, and Chile are in fine form.

Still puzzled as to how Switzerland were seeded. Performed well in qualifying but against average opposition. Makes no sense whatsoever. The balance of these groups is all over the place, but a lot of match predictions have a Brazil v Argentina final, so Blatter will be happy.

Absolute buckley's of making it out of the group. Getting any points at all will be a minor miracle, so I'll be wrapped if we get a point. South American teams perform very well at home, and Chile are in fine form.

Still puzzled as to how Switzerland were seeded. Performed well in qualifying but against average opposition. Makes no sense whatsoever. The balance of these groups is all over the place, but a lot of match predictions have a Brazil v Argentina final, so Blatter will be happy.

Hard to fault anything you've said there 'P-man'. Although soccer (football) can often throw up some 'odd' results, it's hard to see how we're gonna get much of the ball against Spain and against the Dutch. The Kiwis held the Italians to a draw in the last World cup so stranger things have happened!

But imagine if we managed to score a late winner against Chile to win the game 1-0? It could happen if Chile throw everyone forward in search of a win and we score on the rebound. Chile will need to beat us to have any chance of advancing, you'd think. Anyway, it's just a thought!

If the games go according to the seedings in groups A and B, either Brazil, Spain or the Netherlands will be out of the tournament in the round of 16 knockout games (based on Brazil winning group A and Spain and the Netherlands occupying the top 2 spots in group B)

Wasn't sure on the TV coverage but in this article, it seems SBS are covering all the games "live" ... SBS set to gain $25m from World Cup coverage

SBS will broadcast all 64 World Cup matches live in June and July with 700 hours of coverage. Les Murray and Craig Foster will spearhead the coverage from a purpose-built studio overlooking Copacobana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

SBS also has rights to broadcast the 2018 World Cup from Russia and the 2022 tournament from Qatar.

I'll put my money on Brazil winning the WC up home.

I'd be very happy to see the Socceroos even register a goal going on current form and the opposition.

Found a few sites that might be helpful to use during the event ...

Guide to All 32 FIFA World Cup 2014 Teams: Key Players, Predicted Line-Ups & More (when entering this site, scroll down and click on the teams highlighted in "red" - for the likely line-ups and key players)

... all the squads ... & the groups

... all the matches in time & date order ... (you can change the starting time of the games to your local time) N.B - your local time doesn't change the day on this site ... as an example, the tournament kicks off next Thursday in Sao Paulo at 5pm - which makes it 6am next Friday (AEST)

Anyone else on the Belgium bandwagon?

Also looks like England will struggle to make it out of the group stages if they are their usual dysfunctional self.

You need to watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver....

Oh and did you Septic Bladder comments about the Sunday Times being racist again the Qatar WC?! Completely Fing deluded money grubbing c's Macca.

You need to watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver....

Oh and did you Septic Bladder comments about the Sunday Times being racist again the Qatar WC?! Completely Fing deluded money grubbing c's Macca.

I've caught a hold of the first few eps, Cards - good show although a fair bit like "The Daily Show" A fan of John Oliver, all the same. Very funny bloke... his rant, whilst highly amusing, probably didn't shock those who follow the sport closely.

FIFA makes the AFL look like a well run, scrupulously fair and totally transparent organisation! They have given a whole new meaning to the word 'corrupt' ... all the way through to the testing (or lack of testing) for PED's in the sport ... Doping in association football

Regardless of all that, I'm eagerly anticipating the World Cup. A Brazil/Argentina final would be an amazing match-up for the final. Can you imagine the scenes if Argentina won and defeated Brazil on the day as well?

After looking at the draw and the set up of the groups, I can see Brazil, Italy, Spain and Uruguay getting through to the Q/F's in the groups A to D whilst I reckon Argentina, Germany, Belgium and possibly France might get through to the Q/F's in the groups E to H.

The Semi-finals involves a cross-over from those aforementioned groups so we could see any number of combinations of teams in the Semi's ... Bracket Predictor

Edited June 10, 201411 yr by Macca

Hahha makes the afl look fair and transparent.. Nice.

Atmosphere seems electric for the first game. If Brazil can score early the crowd will be insane

Pretty good get for SBS to have Martin Tyler commentating. Now if they can just sync it up with the actual play we'll be laughing. Martin was telling us it was a goal before the ball had gone in the net.

A bit of a dubious penalty to Brazil but without video technology, the ref and his assistants get one look at it. The defender at least put Fred off balance and it's not a good idea to put a hand on a strikers shoulder right in front of the referee.

Not sure the goalkeeper for Croatia had much of a game anyway. A predictable result in some ways but I reckon Brazil will only get better from here on in.

The Spain/Netherlands game tomorrow could be cracker and let's hope the Aussies can acquit themselves well against Chile ... our best hope for some sort of result might be if we're not trailing at half time. I'm not predicting a win or even a draw but our huge underdog status might be a motivating factor for the team. If Chile score first and score early then it might be a tough day at the office.

Brave effort by the Aussies but defensive lapses and a bit of luck killed us. Sounds like another team I know...

Cahill plays soccer like a footy player...very aggressive and does just about everything he can to get to the ball

When you consider that a couple of their players are worth enough to buy our entire squad, that was a terrific performance, especially the second half. Unlucky not to get a point out of it in the end.

Bigger news is Spain 1 Netherlands 5!

Netherlands could easily top the group now and therefore avoid Brazil in the round of 16 games, the Q/F's and the S/F's (assuming Brazil win their group) The Dutch were ultra impressive this morning and when they're in this sort of mood, they're hard to stop.

With goal difference* deciding the placings in the groups in the event of teams being equal on points, Spain will need to recover well in order to advance ... their next game is against Chile and they'll almost certainly need to win that game to get themselves back into it.

Another huge clash tomorrow (8am) when Italy and England do battle.

*The next thing to decide the placings in the groups (if 2 or more teams are equal on points) is total goals scored and then head-to-head etc etc

Pretty good get for SBS to have Martin Tyler commentating.

Such a great caller.

Makes me wince to think of the majority of commentators we have to put up with here.