Stadia are ordered by capacity, for this is a major criterium used by FIFA to decide where the most important matches (such as opening, quarter finals, semi finals and final matches) will be staged.
In 2014, it will be the second time that Brazil will host the FIFA World Cup; Brazil was also host of the 1950 World Cup (besides Brazil, only three other countries had the privilege of hosting twice the World Cup: Mexico in 1970 and 1986, France in 1938 and 1998 and Germany in 1974 and 2006).
All these six cities will be host again in 2014. However, only one of the six stadiums used in 1950 will be used again in 2014: Maracanã; Maracanã was built for the 1950 World Cup, and staged both the opening and the final matches of that Cup.
Two of the 1950 are still in use and are regularly stage of important matches: Ilha do Retiro, in Recife, and Pacaembu, in Sao Paulo; both fit about 35,000 attendants, and with some refurbishment could reach 40,000, FIFA’s standard for a World Cup.
The other three stadia are still standing, but only stage occasional less important matches, and are too small to host a World Cup match: stadium Sete de Setembro (September 7th), in Belo Horizonte, will be replaced by Mineirão; stadium Durival de Brito, in Curitiba, will be replaced by Arena da Baixada; and stadium dos Eucaliptos, in Porto Alegre, will be replaced by Beira-Rio.
Above, a photo of the Sete de Setembro stadium nowadays; it was in Sete de Setembro that United States beat England by 1 x 0.
The Americans would then go to Recife, where they lost to Chile by 5 x 2. The English team played other two matches, both in Maracana. The Italians played only two matches, both in Pacaembu, São Paulo (the city outside Italy with the largest Italian community).
