The World Cup is taking place in South America this summer, but many of the participants are going through North America to get there.
Major League Soccer announced on Monday that it will organize a "Road to Brazil" series of international tune-up matches in the lead-up to World Cup 2014 featuring several of the nations heading to Brazil, including reigning champions Spain (Group B), as well as African powers Nigeria (Group F) and Ivory Coast (Group C).
Other World Cup participants that are confirmed to take part in the "Road to Brazil" are
Bosnia-Herzegovina
(Group F),
Greece
(Group C) and
Honduras
(Group E). Despite missing out on qualifying for the World Cup finals, Bolivia and El Salvador will also compete in the series.
The tune-ups will take place between May 27 and June 10 and will be organized by Soccer United Marketing, the league's commercial arm.
The World Cup kicks off on June 12
with the match between hosts Brazil and Group A opponents Croatia.
Full details of the matches, venues, tickets and potential additional participants will be announced at a later date.
ROAD TO BRAZIL PARTICIPANTS (as of Feb. 3, 2014)
Bolivia
Bosnia-Herzegovina
*
El Salvador
Greece
*
Honduras
*
Ivory Coast
*
Nigeria
*
Spain
*
** = Teams participating in the 2014 World Cup
