Caxirola - The New Vuvuzelas

The Caxirola, pronounced 'ka-shee-roll-ah', the newest World Cup noise-maker, was invented by Oscar-nominated composer Carlinos Brown especially for the World Cup as a way to avoid the disastrous outcome of vuvuzela in South Africa in 2010.
In any case, the buzzing drone of the vuvuzelas will be replaced in Brazil by the Caxirola, a Maracas-like instrument that can be shaken to produce sound.

The Caxirola has been certified by the Brazilian Ministry of Sport and FIFA, and it consists of a simple plastic shaker with finger grips.But despite the official backing, caxirolas won’t be allowed into the matches.

And Brazilian fans are to be blamed for it. Last April, during a match between E. C. Vitória and E. C. Bahia (Carlinhos Brown’s home club) angry fans decided to throw their noise-makers onto the field when the match started going sour.

This incident led sports ministry of Brazil to ban the caxirola from the Confederations Cup, an international World Cup warmup, held last June. They have extended the ban to the twelve venues around the country that will host this year’s World Cup. This means that the Caxirola is officially banned from the 2014 World Cup.

New goalscoring record to be made?

This world cup may very well witness the all-time goalscoring record. The current holder is the famous Brazilian attacker Ronaldo, who scored 15 goals in his days with the national team.

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The player who is within sights and is gunning to break his record is Germany's Miroslav Klose, who equalled the legendary German striker, Gerd Mueller's record of 14 goals in the last world cup.

The 35 year old striker, who is likely playing his last World Cup, is Germany's joint top scorer. A single goal will make him Germany's all time top scorer while two will make him the highest scorer in World Cup history.

The Technology

Goal - Line technology, finally

For the first time at a World Cup, the officials will be assisted by goal-line technology. In the 2010 World Cup, in the Round of 16 match between England and Germany, Frank Lampard shot the ball toward the German goal, which struck the crossbar, bounced to the ground and was then cleared. The ball crossed the goal line, but none of the officials saw it. The goal wasn't given and England went on to lose 4-1. Of course, Germany were better and would have won regardless, but it was till a big talking point.

FIFA approved the Goal Line technology so that such blunders do not repeat themselves, but whether this technology is reliable and actually needed, remains to be seen.

Vanishing Spray
Another great innovation that will be put to use in this edition of the World Cup is the use of Vanishing Spray. This is a water based spray that will be used to mark the ten yard line for the defending team during the free kick and/or to mark where the ball should be placed during a free kick.

The Venues

The 2014 FIFA World Cup matches will take place in 12 different cities, more than any other finals on record.

There will be games in Manaus, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Salvador, Cuiaba, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre. Twelve cities, 12 stadiums and very different landscapes in the surrounding areas; the World Cup in Brazil will be diverse indeed.

The stadia themselves are an array of the new and old, renovated and redesigned.

In list full comprises the following grounds:

Estadio Mineirao, Belo Horizonte

Estadio Nacional de Brasilia, Brasilia

Arena Pantanal, Cuiaba

Arena da Baixada, Curitiba

Estadio Castelao, Fortaleza

Arena Amazonia, Manaus

Estadio das Dunas, Natal

Estadio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre

Arena Pernambuco, Recife

Estadio Do Maracana, Rio de Janeiro

Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador

Arena de Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo.

The smallest, by capacity, is Arena da Baixada, which holds around 28,000, while the biggest, Maracana will seat up to 89,000.

The Teams

The most important things to know, of course, are the teams that are taking part in the tournament.

Here is a list of the teams who have qualified to compete in the football World Cup 2014.

Hosts: Brazil

South America: Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay

North/Central America and Caribbean: United States, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico

Asia: Japan, Australia, Iran and South Korea

Africa: Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana and Algeria

Europe: Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, England, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Croatia and France.






The group wise break-up of the teams is as follows -

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D	Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Brazil	Spain	Colombia	Uruguay	Switzerland	Argentina	Germany	Belgium
Croatia	Netherlands	Greece	Costa Rica	Ecuador	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Portugal	Algeria
Mexico	Chile	Ivory Coast	England	France	Iran	Ghana	Russia
Cameroon	Australia	Japan	Italy	Honduras	Nigeria	USA	South Korea