I’m Dutch, we went undefeated in qualifying so we’re looking good.
But I still dont think we’re good enough to challenge for the world cup, my favourites are Argentina and Brazil
That said though 7 out of 9 of the European 1st place qualifiers (because European qualifying is pretty tough and in practice it’s difficult to lose games and still win your group) were also undefeated in qualifying this time around and the Netherlands had one of the easier qualifying groups so I wouldn’t place too much stock in that fact alone. Netherlands are fairly decent shape though with a good chance of appearing in the later rounds though not among the top 4 favourites (I would place them about 5th or 6th in order of most likely).
England qualified with a good win against a Polish side, who put in a really good performance. England have a few problems in that are defence is nowhere near as tight as it has been previously and that we can’t fully rely on our mixture of mainly old veterans or the young players who are just breaking out to be in the right place next year. However I think we will surprise people if it does come together.
My favourites to win is still Spain and Germany. Argentina have a good chance too, though I’m not sure what would be different this year from the last few years when they have gone into the tournament as one of the strongest favourites but failed to produce. Brazil have home advantage and are still of course Brazil, but this is probably the least impressive Brazil team for decades so I wouldn’t put them as the no.1 favourites.
Agreed, although I’d suggest Germany may be on the verge of greatness. They showed flashes in 2010 and 2012 (they destroyed Argentina in 2010) and may well be ready to put it all together. Spain have been superb for the last 6 years but they may be on a downswing.
My top 6 in order would be.
Germany
Spain
Brazil (through home advantage rather than actual ability)
Holland
Argentina
Italy
The usual suspects in fact.
Dark horses are Belgium. A once-in-a-lifetime squad capable of troubling any team in the world.
England? We look better (and happier) under Roy Hodgson and we have speed and power but our technique is still suspect (All those seven teams above are technically much better). We are 10th in the FIFA rankings and that is fair enough. We aren’t good enough to win it and if we reach the quarters that’ll be a fair result.
We are good enough to shock and surprise even the best teams though so I’m sure none of the seeds will look forward to getting us in their group.
Heck, my expectations are fully managed. As are every other fan I know. The main thing I want is to be entertained. The 2010 world cup was a low point for me. I was bored out of my skull watching England and the last two games have at least given a glimpse of the attacking (if slightly clunky) play that we can produce. I’ll take that and a quarter final exit over tedious progression to the semis. To actually stand a chance of winning the thing will take a good decade or two to turn around our coaching and culture so at least keep me interested and cheering/weeping as we go.
Argies have on paper the best midfield and attackers in the world right now (Tevez, Messi, Higuain, Aguero and Di Maria). The problem is can they put it all together on the field.
They also look suspect in central defense and goalkeeping. But if they can get their act together, and WC being played in South America, I think they can make the final
I thought they played will in Confed cup. That home advantage is going to be huge and might just win it for them.
They lack a world class striker though
Did those of you disparaging Brazil’s quality for the upcoming World Cup watch the 2013 Confederations Cup? The one were Brazil beat Spain 3-0 in the Final? I watched that match: 3-0 makes it sound closer than it was. And it was Spain’s full squad, too. Brazil also beat Italy 4-2 earlier.
Now, the Confederations Cup is hardly the World Cup, but Italy and Spain both brought full, first-team squads. Brazil played in their typical scintillating style, and made Spain look ordinary.
Brazil looked very good. Despite all the supposed weaknesses. 2014 is a new year, and we shall see, but reports of Brazil’s mediocrity are much exaggerated to anyone who watched their performance this summer.
(Esco’s right about the lack of world-class striker, but it might not matter.)
I’ll say it here: Spain will not repeat as winner of the World Cup.
You can definitely go far in a World Cup (and even win it) without a world class striker - Argentina 86, France 98 and to a lesser extent Italy 90 (who relied on the otherwise underwhelming Toto Schillachi for goals and only got knocked out on penalties in the semi-final) are decent examples. There are doubtless others I have not mentioned.
That said, the things that each of those three sides had in common were a transcendent talent somewhere else in the team - Maradona, Zidane, Baggio (the fact that Baggio was not quite as good as Maradona or Zidane might be a reason Italy didn’t go on to win in 1990) - and extremely solid defence and defensive midfielders. If Neymar has a wonder World Cup and Brazil defend well, the lack of a striker may well not be a problem at all.
At this point, I would say that it will be one of Germany, Spain, Argentina or Brazil with the Dutch and the Belgians as outside chances (Belgium will likely not be winning but they could well upset one of the front runners). England, as ever, will be knocked out by the first decent side they face.
Agreed. I also think the hot weather will play a factor next summer. Spain looked gassed already after just 45 minutes
You’re right, it might not. France didnt have a good striker in '98 either. Enter Zidane
Again I gotta agree. I think winning 4 major tournaments in a row is a bridge too far for them
After watching Brazil outmuscle Spain in the Confederations Cup, I became convinced that there was little chance they weren’t going to win the WC at home. I think it will be Neymar’s time to shine on the world stage. Neymar streaking down the wing on counterattack is every other national team’s defensive nightmare.
I’m also Dutch. We also went almost undefeated through the qualifiers for the 2012 Eurocup. Do you remember how well we did there? These qualifiers don’t mean diddly squat. Especially now that we’re not going to be a group head, which means we could be in a group with Brazil or Spain or Germany, I would not be surprised if we did not even make it out of the group.
Fancy scaring yourself as to how difficult it might be to get out of your group? Try this simulator!
http://ultra-zone.net/2014-FIFA-World-Cup-Group-Stage-Draws
I keep getting England in the same group as Germany or Spain with one of Ghana, The Ivory Coast or Russia in the group too. The worst group I got was Germany, USA, Ghana, England - which would be an incredibly hard group of death.
On the plus side, if the chips fall right, I did get a group for England with Switzerland, Iran and Ecuador in it. Those were few and far between though. There are a number of potentially acid draws knocking around. If you can avoid Ghana, Ivory Coast, Russia and (for England given the historical sporting rivalry) Australia out of their pot then you’ve got better chance of going through, especially if you can get Switzerland, Uruguay (not yet qualified) and Colombia in the seeded pot as well.
ETA: I’ve pressed the button more than 10 times now and I’m starting to get groups that don’t scare me as much. Nevertheless, there is the possibility, given the current distribution of the teams between the pots of at least 2 groups in this World Cup that will be hard.
No kidding!
We also went undefeated in WC2010 qualifying and made the final.
Sometimes it means something, other times it doesnt
Please don’t be stupid. Sometimes we do well afterwards, sometimes we do poorly afterwards, which means that it never means anything. That we made it out of a weak sauce group without tripping over ourselves too much is nice but it is zero indication that we’re going to do well in Brazil.
One of the things I noticed about Spain in the Confederations Cup, aside from Torres’s lack of productivity in the Final (after having done things like score 4 goals against Tahiti and getting two hat tricks total in the competition), was how much Spain missed the likes of Carles Puyol, Spain’s superb veteran and captain: the man who gives potency to Spain’s defensive shape, “…the quickest reactions…the most explosive strength.” Puyol. “The Wall.”
He’s 35. He wasn’t at the Confederations Cup due to a knee injury, something that’s plagued him for years. It’s not 100% likely we’ll see him on the Spanish side in Brazil in 2014, but we shall see. No Puyol means Spain just isn’t quite the same. David Villa’s best days are behind him. Torres is still inconsistent (but undeniably talented.) Of course there’s still much tremendous talent regardless.
Spain is going to be a threat, of course. But Spain without Puyol struggles to keep its defensive shape against top teams, and a side with the attacking options of Brazil can take it apart at will, as they demonstrated this past summer.
I can’t wait!
You dont be stupid.
Our group wasnt that weak, Turkey, Romania can play a little, and even Estonia gave us trouble.
You sound like one of those typical negative Dutch mopperkonts. Always complaining about everything
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Although both Turkey and Romania have fielded good teams in the past, they’re undeniably weaker than they used to be (especially the Turks). But all of that is besides the point. Your claim is that we’re looking good because we did so well in the qualifiers; but obviously a good performance in the qualifiers does not really tell us whether we’re going to do well in Brazil, because we almost always do well in the qualifiers, and it does not correlate with how well we do in the final tournament. Every day the sun rises; some days, it rains, others, it doesn’t. The sun rising in the morning does not tell us shit about what weather it will be, and the Netherlands doing well in the qualifiers does not tell us shit about how well we’ll do in Brazil. We might do well; I hope we will. But how well we’ve done so far provides us with very little information on whether that is going to happen or not.
We also played fairly well in that friendly against Portugal (and yes I know friendlies dont mean much :))
I think we’re good enough to get out of our group, even if we land with Brazil or Germany.
Also that FIFA ranking system is complete pants. Swiss shouldnt be anywhere near a group seed
**EDIT: **also this is allegedly our 2014 away shirt thats been leaked: http://i.imgur.com/uSVCJGN.jpg
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What does “mopperkonts” mean? It sounds wonderful and I would like to use it at appropriate times.
Alright, so you’re conceding the point about how you were wrong? 
Mopperen is to be grumpy; kont means ass, but I’d translate mopperkont as something more benign, like grumpy pants perhaps.
All Svejk’s points are based on the faulty assumption we didn’t get defeated in the quali’s for Euro 2012;): I give you the last game against Sweden (after having qualified already), which we lost 3-2… after this we had some bad friendlies and never really recovered for the tournament.
That being said, we look ok, but our back 4 is something at Championship level. If our top players stay fit (and Strootman keeps improving), we might go a few rounds.
Belgium will start well, but falter when they meet a big name (they still are too polite).
Brazil will have difficulties with the pressure. Beat a bad team by a single goal and scrape through to the second round. In the knock out part, they will inevitably lose it when they go a goal behind… and lose with 9 men on the pitch.
Germany will look great, but in the end come up short and lose undeservedly (their succesfull teams are too relaint on foreigners: Robben, Ribery, Lewandowski).
England will do the same as they have done the last decade: play badly and lose on penalties (while crying foul about disallowed goals that noone else believes were ref-mistakes…in this case I don’t mean the Lampard goal).
So in the end Italy-Argentina in a great match between the most exciting attack, that gets snuffed out by the best defense… until Balotelli lashes out, gets a red card, and Argentina win with a flukey goal.
The oracle has spoken :P, no real reason to actually play the damn thing now;).