Brazil vs. Croatia, 2014 World Cup: A primer for new fans

Brazil will expect nothing less than a comfortable win against Croatia in the opening match of the 2014 World Cup, which they should be capable of getting. But the unbelievable pressure on the hosts could prove problematic against a side which could pose a significant early threat.

      Brazil and Croatia will kick off the opening match of the World Cup (4 p.m. ET, ESPN) with very different feelings. The pressure on Brazil will be utterly unbelievable, and anything other than a convincing win against Croatia will start to see serious questions asked after just one game of the tournament, while their opponents will be hoping to take anything they can get, as they hope to qualify from the group ahead of Mexico.

Playing styles

Everybody knows that Brazil are famed for playing glorious, free-flowing soccer with flair and skill, but that's a very simplistic outlook. Particularly in recent years, Brazil have tended to be at their best when the core of the team is lined up in a pragmatic, defense-first mindset, which allows their talented forwards to be liberated and operate at their best up front. This was what the manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, did when he won the World Cup before.

The problem is that at that time, Brazil's front three consisted of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho -- three utterly world-class attacking talents, with plenty of support from their rampaging wing-backs. Now, with the attacking talent not quite in the same class, Scolari has opted for a rather basic 4-2-3-1 formation, requiring his wide players to do some more defending. The upside to this is that they can probably expect some more drive from their legions of powerful, box-to-box midfielders, and they can certainly expect some magic along the way from Neymar too.

Croatia, meanwhile, have always been a side that has enjoyed playing attractive football too, and there should be no change for that at this tournament. They have a reasonably well-balanced side, but along with diminutive, dainty ball-players, they also possess some muscle, from defensive midfielder Ognjen Vukojevic to their physical forwards. Croatia play nice soccer, but they know how to be nasty too.

Despite that, this is a team with real problems -- for every role in the team other than ball-playing midfielder, they're desperately short, in some cases only one injury away from having to field a vastly inferior player (striker), or simply not having very good options at all (much of their defense.) They'll have to prioritize keeping the ball for as much defensive reasons as attacking ones, and their qualification campaign shows this side is not the strongest. They finished a whole nine points behindBelgium in the group, and managed to get beaten home and away byScotland. Scotland!