The 2014 World Cup begins on June 12, when Brazil plays Croatia in the opening match. Reporters and editors for The Times will count down to the start of the tournament each day with a short capsule of news and interesting tidbits.

The FIFA video game series is certainly the soccer experience of choice for millions around the world. Yet, for aficionados seeking perhaps a more cerebral experience with the game, players and strategies, Football Manager 14 is worth a look.

Especially in this World Cup year, with only 60 days to go before the first kickoff, Football Manager (with 10 million copies sold) can provide a taste of what it is like to run any club in more than 50 countries, including teams in Europe and Major League Soccer.

The program enables you to manage a team, deciding who plays and who sits, and dictating what type of tactics are employed as matches are played out by the program’s three-dimensional match simulator. Football Manager’s database (which is used by some professional clubs in England and elsewhere) has been constructed based on information and analysis from hundreds of correspondents around the globe.