32 teams compete for four years of bragging rights.
There are 32 teams competing in the 2014 World Cup:
The top seven teams were put into separate groups, along with the host nation, Brazil.
The rest of the teams were put into "pots" based on their geographic location...
Pot 1: The top seven teams, plus host Brazil.
Pot 2: Africa & South America
Pot 3: Asia & North America
Pot 4: Europe
Via en.wikipedia.org
And then one team from each pot was randomly placed into a separate group.
The teams from Pot 3 (Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, and the United States) are highlighted here.