World Cup Preview: Favorites Edition
Graphic illustration by FIFA.com
With the World Cup in Qatar coming up, the natural question of “Who will win?” comes up. There are a few teams that automatically come to mind. I have decided to help sort these so-called “favorites” for the World Cup into four groups: Contenders, Possible, Outside Shot, and Pretenders.
ARGENTINA: Contenders
Argentina is the favorites to win this year according to the general public, and ultimately, how can you blame the public in this case? Argentina are stacked to the brim with talent, with seemingly no downside in their combination of talented prospects and grizzled veterans (one of whom is arguably the best player of all time Lionel Messi). I personally have them winning it all, as they have a level of talent that is not matched by any other team in this competition. Regardless of if it goes well or not, they will be a fun team to watch.
BELGIUM: Pretenders
Belgium is one of the most overhyped teams in the history of sports. For three consecutive years, they were ranked number one in the world by coefficient despite never winning anything of note and barely ever beating quality opposition. I honestly think that they would be lucky to get past the Round of 16 with the way they’ve been playing recently. They’re a team that is living proof that even if you have immense quality, if you don’t have a winning mentality, you won’t win anything.
BRAZIL: Possible
Brazil is an extremely talented team that have a clear will to win, but in this case, the will to win while having an ego can cause locker room issues, which can (and probably will) become an issue for Brazil. I have them going out in the Semifinals to their rivals, Argentina, as in big games against tough opponents, egos tend to clash.
ENGLAND: Outside Shot
If we’re being totally honest with ourselves, it is absolutely not coming home. England tend to do well with winning World Cups and in the Euros, which is why I am not counting them completely out, but their form is absolutely horrible and they have been playing the ugliest, most defensive soccer possible, despite having more than enough attacking quality to actually play attacking soccer but they decided not to. I have them getting knocked out in the Round of 16 against the Netherlands.
FRANCE: Pretenders
France, like Belgium, are an extremely talented team that are just overhyped. The issue with France is not necessarily mentality as much as it is the fact that they’ve had several players arrested for extremely serious crimes that could put some of those players in jail for over a decade. On top of this, one of their best players in Paul Pogba was not selected due to allegations that he tried to put a witch spell on another player on the national team. I honestly think that they could be knocked out in the group stages, as Denmark are unbelievably underrated and Tunisia are a sneaky team who could upset anyone on their day.
GERMANY: Outside Shot
Germany will be in yet another World Cup, but this time, they have much lower expectations than ever before as their form going into this is mediocre at best. They have an extremely talented group of players, but for almost all of them, when they play poorly, it gets very bad. I think that their system will carry them to the Quarterfinals where they will be knocked out by Brazil.
PORTUGAL: Outside Shot
Portugal is an extremely talented team, with one of the best players in the history of soccer playing for them currently in Cristiano Ronaldo. Where could it go wrong? Well, when you have a system that is built around a single player, things tend to go south very quickly when that player is out of form. The rest of the squad is unbelievably talented too, but it will all ultimately depend on Ronaldo naturally. I think they will get knocked out in the Round of 16 in a shock result against Switzerland.
SPAIN: Possible
Spain is completely out of form and have struggled in attack, so naturally you may ask yourself, “Why are they in ‘Possible’?” They have a somewhat difficult group draw, although for a team of their quality, it should be expected to qualify for the knockout rounds. If they finish in second (as I expect to happen), they have an incredibly easy road to the semifinal from there. This is why I have them losing in the semifinal against my eventual runner-up and Cinderella story Denmark. I think that they would end up losing the third-place match against Brazil, giving them the spot of fourth in the tournament.
