FIFA World Cup preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, which is often called the "World Cup Finals". After this, 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation(s), compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month. The 21 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Germany and Italy, with four titles each; Argentina, France and inaugural winner Uruguay, with
African nations at the FIFA World Cup by Asamoah Gyan. Had Ghana won their quarter final they would have become the very first African nation to progress to the semifinals of the world cup. Of the 32 countries that participated in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, FIFA ranked Ghana 7th. The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil marked the first time more than one African team went beyond the group stages. While Ghana and Cameroon both collected disappointing results (apart from Ghana's 2–2 draw with later champions Germany, which saw them becoming the only team not to lose against the Germans in the entire tournament) and eventually