Plenty of rooting going on in Australia, some of it actually during a game.
I thought The Brazil hammering in the last world cup was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. The over-the-top posturing before the game by the home fans and team was one of the most nauseating sights seen in sport thus far and so I was delighted to see them get roundly spanked and start crying in the stands inside 25 minutes.
Neymar, however talented, is a tit, he seems like a thoroughly unlikable person and got what he deserved in 2014 and again last year at PSG.
Messi on the other hand seems like a nice guy as well as a great player. He has yet to secure a major international trophy though and this is pretty much his last chance. Argentina are decent but not earth-shattering (they very nearly missed out on qualifying) so if they are to win it may well seal Messi’s legacy but…he’s not an inspirational force of nature like Maradona. Argentina could win it if the rest of the team play well and Messi doesn’t but not vice-versa (unlike the Maradona era)
I think it is hard to look past Germany. I picked them for 2014 and they will be phenomenally hard to beat again.
But it is really very open. No-one would be particularly surprised if any of the following won.
Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina
England have a very young and inexperienced team and no-one is expecting too much from them but a quarter final is a possibility with anything else a bit of a bonus.
Messi needs an International trophy, otherwise his legacy had a big mark against it. What with Ronaldo winning the Euro.
CR7 has the character to drag his team to glory, long shot, but if Portugal do another unlikely victory, the question of the greatest of all time is settled.
Ronaldo is willing to play at any posution for Portugal, Messi cries like a bitch every time he is aksed to step outside his comfort zone.
I suspect the Germans and the Brazilians will be exposed. The Spainiards are still too reliant on tikki takka. I think France will go deep, while if Argentina can finally mesh as a team, I don’t see anyone stopping them.
France v Argentina for glory.
I would be extremely surprised if Portugal or Argentina won. Argentina basically doesn’t have any defenders and outside Ronaldo Portugal isn’t really that talented. Yeah, they won the Euros, but they relied on 3rd place ranking it make it out of the group and only had to play one team that has any talent the entire tournament.
Now, if they advance from the group this time, they do get to play the winner or runner up of the weakest group in WC history, so the quarters seem likely. But then they’d have to beat, probably, France, Brazil, and Germany in 3 straight matches. No way.
Brazil may not be playing the beautiful game so much these days but they marched handily through South American qualifying, are fast and dangerous up front (Firmino, Coutinho, Fred, etc.) and Neymar’s late season injury helped him avoid the slog through French and European play (yeah, they got knocked out of Champions League early). He’s healthy, rested and fresh with talented players alongside him. This could be their year again.
But I like watching Belgium for DeBruyne and Hazard and love the matches at the lower levels between teams from vastly different parts of the world. Sometimes the march to the top isn’t the most interesting part of a tournament.
Well it is a qualitative assessment of course but I don’t think you mean “extremely surprised” surely? I’d rank the likelihood of the winners something along the line of…
Germany, Brazil, France, Spain - completely unsurprising
Argentina, Belgium, Portugal - slightly more unexpected
Uruguay, England, Switzerland, Colombia - quite surprising
anyone else and we then run into the territory of “extremely surprised” but of course your scale may be calibrated differently.
Russia…errrr, not quite sure how to assess that eventuality. I expect everyone’s thoughts would mirror those at the point when the tournament was first awarded to them.
Agreed, England have manged to dilute my enthusiasm and expectations and now all I’m really wanting is to be entertained. The team that entertains me and doesn’t piss me off will get my support and that may well come from the teams outside the top seeds. As far as England goes, if they play with ambition and purpose and entertain me then I’m happy enough for them to get whupped by a better team, c’est la vie.
That’s one of the key reasons why I plumped for Germany in 2014. I watched them as a team coming together in 2010 and loved the way they played and could see they were only going to get better. In 2014 they were the best team by some distance and probably the most entertaining to watch.
Definitely qualitative. And I’m pretty much in agreement with your tiers of teams, but I’d give the top 4 teams something like an 85-90% chance of winning. Belgium and Argentina maybe 5% each and the rest in the noise.
England should be in the top tier of teams. It wouldn’t surprise anyone but a cynical Englishman to see them in the final match.
Sorry, but it would. Admittedly I’m a cynical Englishman, but really, how many genuinely world-class players are in the England squad? I’ll (arbitrarily, for the purposes of this discussion) define “world-class” as “most top teams in Europe would like to own them”. I’d say we have one (Harry Kane), arguably two if you include Dele Alli (who is just as likely to be sent off as to play a key part in winning a big game). Or maybe Sterling for 2.5/3. Rashford is good but struggles to start regularly for Man Utd. It would be very surprising to me if England won (it relies on a group of largely untested young players all coming into top form at once, and a bit of luck), and it’s nearly as unlikely that they will get past the quarter-finals. Going out at the group stage, despite the relatively easy group, is at least a 10% chance.
If I had to lay money down, it would probably be Germany or Spain.
For pure rooting interest, it’ll be Iceland (because, they have a cool chant: - YouTube and are doing this with a population smaller than the US county I live in) and Costa Rica (because they get overlooked so often with Mexico and the USA getting all the attention here).
Argentina has some true class with Messi, Di Maria, Dayalbla and Augrero. Their backline is not too bad with Rojo, Biglia and Otamendi and they have a couple of hard DM, especially Mascherano.
Everybody needs luck. last time the Germans barely got passed Ghana and Algeria and needed Argentina to miss 4 chances to win it in the final. Portugal has some good players, besides CR7. They also have a very astute coach. While them going all the way would be surprising, won’t be too shocked if they do.
BBC and others reporting now that Argentina’s (and West Ham’s) Manuel Lanzini just tore an ACL in training and will obviously be unavailable. He might have seen some serious minutes for them, too.
It’s bad compared to other top teams, especially if you consider their keepers are poor. Germany, Spain, and France will start backlines with (transfermarkt) market values of 40M pounds or more. Argentina’s average is like 12 mostly Otamendi. Wouldn’t be a huge surprise to me if they drop Mascherano into the backline to help out.
I may be wrong. They do have one of the best groups of attacking players in the history of the sport, and the best in the tournament. However, I do think defensive weakness makes a QF exit most likely.
I know many of you have Spain in the top tier. I just don’t see it. No scorers. Costa and Aspas is not a very convincing duo.
Presumably you have Germany, Brazil, and France as better than them. Any others?
Best backline in the tournament, great keeper, and top tier midfield goes a long way to make up for second tier strikers. Germany won it with second tier strikers last time around, after all. Albeit with great attacking midfielders. Isco is at least as good as Muller or Ozil too.
No, those would be my only 3.
Hey, Klose was a great striker.������
You mean the all-time goal scorer in the history of the World Cup? And its highly doubtful Isco can match Miller’s WC track record.
Heh, I get into discussions of this with my friends all the time. But, yes, absolutely.
Klose was an ok striker during a period of time where Germany had a fantastic team with mediocre alternative options. He’s definitely not within the top 10 forwards among his contemporaries. Maybe top 20-25. He was alright, and also very overrated.
Muller plays on a better team than Isco and already has a WC victory under his belt. Of course it’s a long shot that Isco has a better WC career than Muller. But if Isco was a German citizen, I’m pretty sure Low would prefer him to Muller.