FIFA World Cup (Men's)

Neymar and Brazil had no troubles in their first warmup match against Panama, cruising to a 4-0 victory behind a stellar goal from the 22-year-old phenom.

Fans commonly throw things onto the pitch. Streamers, confetti, toilet paper and so on. Last month, The18 covered one of the more infamous throwing incidents when a fan tossed a banana at Dani Alves, setting off international outrage about racism in soccer.

The official ball of World Cup 2014 has had an eye - or six - on the players we’ll be seeing in the upcoming tournament. Leading up to the start of the World Cup, Adidas and TBWA sent the ball to London, Munich, Madrid and more for exclusive interviews and videos of top players. Here's the trailer they released a few months ago:

Were you one of the many Americans waiting with bated breath to hear the results of the U.S.’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup? Maybe you even lived in one of the host cities and were hoping that some of the predicted $5B in economic benefit to the U.S. might come to your local economy. Well, according to some economists, we’re all a little better off saving our money and just taking a trip to Qatar. Although, meteorologists might recommend against it.

After years of debate in the futbol community, World Cup 2014 will be the first in history to feature the new goal-line technology instituted by FIFA. 

FIFA already has its hands full as we pass the two-week mark until kickoff in Sao Paulo between Brazil and Croatia. Preparations are in overdrive mode, as three stadiums are still a cause for concern for the football's governing body. Now FIFA and head of security Ralf Mutschke have to deal with the ramifications of a rumor that the Nigeria-Scotland warmup match was fixed, bringing worry to this year's World Cup. 

It's almost World Cup tournament time, and we here at The18 decided to start things early with our first-ever The18.com World Cup Kit Championship.

Forget about the World Cup buses that will be taking national teams around Brazil in two weeks with slogans painted on their sides. Check out the plane that the Brazilian national team will be flying in and out of Brazil's unfinished airports (low blow, we know). Brazilian artists and identical twins, Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo (a.k.a.

We here at The18 have already written about the trials that the USMNT will go through regarding weather and travel at this year's World Cup. However, in the past weeks the Brazilan player’s federation, also known as Fenapaf, filed a lawsuit to change kickoff times of 24 matches scheduled to start at 1 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET).

The United States opened its World Cup warmup matches with a sluggish 2-0 win over 85th-ranked Azerbaijan at Candlestick Park in San Francisco last night. With team captain Clint Dempsey a late scratch with a groin injury, the U.S. team played a 4-4-2 formation, with Jozy Altidore and Chris Wondolowski up front. Wondolowski had two excellent chances in the early part of the match off set pieces in the 4th and 15th minutes, but could not convert the opportunities into goals. It was only in the second half that the U.S.