World Cup wisdom
The world’s biggest lottery took place on Friday, but nobody won a giant check. Instead, the 32 national soccer teams that qualified for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil next summer were divided into eight groups of four for the first round during a glitzy, televised ceremony in a Brazilian coastal town. To the dismay of American soccer fans, the U.S. team landed in the “group of death,” which most experts agree contains the toughest opponents in the preliminary round. The United States will face soccer juggernauts Germany and Portugal as well as a strong team from Ghana. In the run-up to the event, which will be held June 12 through July 13 at various locations in Brazil, the organizers have faced construction delays, violent protests, and, most recently, the collapse of a massive crane that destroyed part of a stadium in São Paulo. Judith Grant Long is associate professor of...