The World Cup is by far soccer's flashiest stage. Brazil spent something like $11 billion to host this year's games — making this the most expensive World Cup in history.

But at its heart, soccer is a simple game that requires little more than a ball, a patch of land, and a couple goal markers to play — which is among the chief reasons that the beautiful game is so beloved across the globe. And while the fields themselves can be marvelously diverse, as these photos from Reuters show, the sport played on them remains the same.

Mogadishu, Somalia | (REUTERS/Feisal Omar)

Cretelongue jail, Granges, Switzerland | (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse)

Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua, Nicaragua | (REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas)

Lipljan, Kosovo | (REUTERS/Hazir Reka)

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico | (REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez)

Molweni, South Africa | (REUTERS/Rogan Ward)

Kathmandu, Nepal | (REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar)

Shuto Orizari, Macedonia. | (REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski)