Two nations chasing World Cup glory will do battle today in a match between France and Honduras. The 2014 World Cup group-stage match scheduled for 3 p.m. ET will be held at the Estadio Beira-Rio and can be live streamed here free. A free Spanish language stream of the match can be found here. Free radio coverage can be found here. Additional TV coverage can be found on ABC and ESPN Deportes.
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With past World Cups still haunting the French national team, the order of 2014 is to rectify past mistakes. The likes of Olivier Giroud are being called upon to rebuild the ruins of self-imploded teams.
"We've gone through a rebuilding phase, because people still associate the team with Knysna [in South Africa] and the way in which we exited the tournament last time," said Giroud (via FIFA), referring to France's group-stage exit in 2010. "The French public hasn't forgotten what happened, and we're going to show them that we can keep our flag flying high during the World Cup."
"The majority of players weren't in the squad, and we'd rather look to the future rather than the past," he added. "What we've achieved over the past few months has been extremely encouraging. There's been a groundswell of support for our team, which has obviously stemmed from our run of good results and our qualification versus Ukraine."
Will France continue that momentum against Honduras this afternoon? Tell us @SportsWN
Tactical Preview
Player to Watch: No player better represents the notion of "club and country" for Honduras than Oscar Boniek Garcia. The 29-year-old has made 12 appearances for the Houston Dynamo this season. In them, Garcia is responsible for an average of 2.4 tackles and 1.9 key passes per match. He'll look to continue his form for his native land.
France's Projected Lineup (4-3-3): Lloris; Evra, Sakho, Koscielny, Sagna; Cabaye, Matuidi, Pogba; Benzema, Giroud, Valbuena
Honduras' Projected Lineup (4-4-2): Valladares; Izaguirre, Figueroa, Bernardez, Beckeles; Espinoza, Garrido, Palacios, Garcia; Costly, Bengtson
Note: Credit all statistics to officially licensed data from Opta Sports (via WhoScored)
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