Soccer greats Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Charlton recounted old stories and discussed young players in the modern game at the recent Laureus Sports Awards. Always part of the conversation was the place of Brazilian soccer, back when Beckenbauer and Charlton competed in the World Cup and looking ahead to next year's World Cup Brazil will host.

Seven months remain in Europe's World Cup qualifying, but defending champion Spain already finds itself in a deep hole.

For no one does Friday's Serbia-Croatia World Cup qualifier mean more to than Serbia coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, the son of a Croatian mother and Serbian father who grew up in the Croatian river port of Vukovar, where 2,000 citizens were killed in the attack by Serbian forces during the Croatian War of Independence.

The forecast is for light snow when the USA hosts Costa Rica on Friday night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo.

Winner of the last two European Championships and the 2010 World Cup, Spain finds itself in the unusual position of being on edge. Its 1-1 tie with France in Madrid -- a match France could have won -- has amped up the pressure of Vicente Del Bosque's squad ahead of Tuesday's World Cup qualifier at the Stade de France.

Rio de Janeiro recently hosted the Laureus Sports Awards and provided a forum for World Cup legends to discuss the World Cup in 2014. Former Dutch captain Ruud Gullit, 1966 World Cup champion Bobby Charlton, Marcel Desailly of the 1998 French World Cup team and the German Franz Beckenbauer, World Cup winner as both a player and a coach, attended.

Two days before Thursday's scheduled visit to the famous Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke expressed about concerns about it readiness to host Confederations Cup matches in June.