Smogon's Official World Cup Discussion (Congrats to Glaucius on winning Pick'em!)

[Slim Guldo]

it's really hard to call who will win, i think the most common opinion is brazil will win but i'm not really sure about them, i look at their squad and feel like it's not as good as some of the other teams (spain, germany) but it may just be that i don't know them very well. the home advantage will help them and any other south american contenders though

i fully expect england to go out after the first 2 games but i guess we could pull off an upset against one of italy and uruguay. if we get through, we should probably reach the quarter finals no matter which two get through group c (colombia, ivory coast, japan and greece are all worse than the three good teams in d)

i think belgium are lucky in that they have a nice easy group to cruise through and get warmed up, but germany or more likely portugal in the ro16 is brutal for them. there are no easy matchups later than that really, there are too many good teams now

argentina have an easy route to the quarter finals, i don't know who they could get at that stage but they have some problems with their defence imo so i don't think they'll go any further

usa and australia should lose all 3 games, ghana and chile are both strong teams

speaking of chile, they're my pick for dark horse of the tournament. the netherlands definitely aren't as strong as 4 years ago and chile looked super strong against england (although that doesn't really mean much)

damn i have a lot to say about this haha, sorry!

 

[destinyunknown]

I have always been negative about Spain chances in basically every tournament and I don't think we're in such a bad form as most people make it out to be. I mean I don't think we will win because winning 4 times in a row is just unreal, but I reckon we'll have a decent performance at least. Spain doesn't have desirable pairings though, both group round and first knockout round look tough to me.

This World Cup looks very open, and I consider Brazil the favorite just because they're at home (which has some implications ...), as I don't actually think they're that good. Besides the obvious favorites (Germany, Spain, Argentina) there are a few solid (yet unexperienced) teams that could be the upset of the tournament (Belgium, Switzerland, Colombia, etc). To be honest I find it hard to believe that they will win, but there has to be a first time for everything and they do have the quality to put up a fight against any team.

 

[BanSpecsMachamp]

This World Cup is one of the most wide open World Cups in a very long time.

You've got 3 South Americans teams all in with a shout - Brazil, Argentina & Uruguay. I hear the media in Brazil are bigging themselves up even more than the English media have done before every single major tournament until this one.

There's the European Teams as well - Spain, Germany, Ronaldo, Holland. Belgium could be dark horses, and it's always nice to see the likes of the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Korea & Japan making the latter stages.

QFT
This World Cup looks very promising and I am definitely looking forward to watching as many games as I can. It's really difficult to decide who will win just because of all the strong teams that are going. Hoping Belgium do well because I've been bragging about their squad for a while!

EDIT: Also good luck to everyone doing the pick, looks like a lot of fun. My pick set is BanSpecsMachamp obviously... :)

 

[reyscarface]

lol at uruguay having a chance. unless suarez magically clones himself 5 times uruguay has about 0 chance of winning this world cup. brazil have better chances but i reckon their squad is the weakest its been in a biiiig while. argentina have legit chances, it all depends on how in form messi will be and if their coach managed to get their defense to be less retarded.

id say its a toss up on whether an european wins in south america for the first time. germany look even stronger than last year, i havent watched them lately but it was a surprise to me that they took so few strikers. i guess muller is their primary offensive option but still, hes not known for being a 9 and klose is kinda out of it. spain are always contenders and portugal have big dick ronaldo whos dick is insanely big right now after winning ucl. france also look promising, but ribery looked like shit late in the season for bayern and benzema is the most inconsistent "world class striker" ever. italy has a slightly bigger chance to win than the european teams i havent mentioned simply because they have showed they can have sparks of miracles like in 2010. Balotelli is second most inconsistent striker behind benzema and immobile is very inexperienced so there might be a lack of goals. belgium are the underdog, i dont think anyone dislikes their team and theyre a strong squad, just not as strong as the other european ones and argentina. england have about no chance of winning it, their team looks weak everywhere.

so yeah either argentina win if messi has his carry pants on or a toss up between brazil getting all the help they can get from the refs and a top 3 european team winning. its all on you again messi

 

[Soul Fly]

Argentina is unbelievably overrated on this forum. I don't understand it, maybe someone could explain it to me?

MESSI BITCH.

true Faith. LFGI.

 

[Imanalt]

Soul Fly im not sure if you realize this but a team generally has more than one player. This isn't basketball where its about how many superstars you can throw on the field, its about the best team, with depth and quality at every position, which argentina just doesn't have. They are very overrated in general, although they are a solid team, just not a serious contender to win it all.

 

[Soul Fly]

I get it LOL.
I'm explaining the Hype (while acting as a fanboy)

 

[reyscarface]

hype is because the world cup is in south american soil and argentina are the best south american team right now, easy as that

 

[X5Dragon]

I'm still hoping for the day where Holland wins the WCOP and don't choke at the finals. The problem is there is a super high chance the Orange meet the Samba at the 16 so...

I'm waiting to see what the Belgians are going to do, they have so much hype right now I'd expect sparks shooting from their boots.

 

[Sapientia]

I don't think belgium will have a chance against portugal or germany in top 16.
Japan, Switzerland or Chile will be the surprise team while colombia, uruguay and belgium will disappoint

 

[Ernesto]

Soul Fly im not sure if you realize this but a team generally has more than one player. This isn't basketball where its about how many superstars you can throw on the field, its about the best team, with depth and quality at every position, which argentina just doesn't have. They are very overrated in general, although they are a solid team, just not a serious contender to win it all.

Now I'm not saying we're gonna win this at all, but really? Zabaleta was the best rb on PL, Garay was the best cb in Portugal returning to his level in Racing de Santander (so before going to Real), Micho had an amazing second half of the season with the only stain being his red card against Barça, Fernández actually played a lot this season in Napoli. Sure, none of those are Zanetti or Ayala in their best times, but they're currently pretty good. Our lb isn't anything to write home about offensively but we have Di María to do work there, and Masche was the best Barça player after his disappointing performance against Benzema in La Liga. So when we decide to defend, we CAN do that because we have the players. What we lack is consistent playmaking, but outside of Lamela and maybe Pastore (although he hasn't played there in a while) we don't really have that role. At least a good Gago (who's a question mark) could be close to what Verón did.

The biggest issue we have is that Romero played like 8 games the whole season but Sabella still considers he's the best, so we'll have to see. Of course our 4-3-3 with Di María and Gago in midfield is extremely unbalanced, but Sabella is an actual coach and he won't keep that lineup against teams that don't park the bus against us—unlike what Maradona did four years ago.

Honestly if you don't put Argentina as a serious contender you haven't been following them in the last 3 years and are stuck with the picture from the 0-4 (or you just really dislike us as a country, which is perfectly understandable lol). However, I'd consider it an achievement to actually play all the games 6 WCs later. If everything goes as planned, the winner of Brazil-Germany should win the whole thing.

To clarify, even though I used first person I'm not talking just as an Argentine, it's more of a journalism student's opinion with everything he's watched.

 

[reyscarface]

Btw since its almost the best time of the year: join #soccer (football was taken okay) to talk with some other smogoners about the world cup. usually theres many people there in world cup season and it makes for a nice time.

 

[HBK]

hype is because the world cup is in south american soil and argentina are the best south american team right now, easy as that

Argentina might have more stars but Brazil are a better team.

 

[pj]

World cup 2014 starting today feeling excited

Croatia VS Brazil
8 Hours to Go

 

[SgtWoodsy]

hahahahahahaha we are so fucked.

 

[WaterBomb]

Croatia upsets Brazil to open the tournament, calling it right now.

 

[X5Dragon]

Do you mean the actual football match or stands? I'm rooting for the Croatian women tbh. Also lel:

 

[Eagle4]

Brazil gonna win 2-1, a late scrappy goal from a corner will decide the game. Brazil fans go mental. Neymar will look lively but won't score.

edit: X5Dragon that joke's old, it's just been changed a little for the world cup

 

[destinyunknown]

I'm predicting a 1-1, just for the sake of it.

 

[Soul Fly]

That joke is a running one since South Africa.

Predicting 2 possible outcomes. Neymar and co. go wild and run riot. Or Croatia put up their best and only fight this world cup due to opening game determination and we see a close but definitive result.

 

[HanPyol]

2-2 draw, IMO.

 

[Eagle4]

That joke is a running one since South Africa.

Predicting 2 possible outcomes. Neymar and co. go wild and run riot. Or Croatia put up their best and only fight this world cup due to opening game determination and we see a close but definitive result.

You really underrate Croatia. They have a pretty strong side that is in with a very good chance of making it out of their group; they defend resiliently, and have fantastic in-form players like Modric and Rakitic.

 

[Soul Fly]

Yes, I took in account their "defending resolutely" asset, until they lost 2 of their best defenders back to back. Which means he'll play a second string dude out of his position at left back. Not something you'd want to do against Brazil of all teams. Plus while Modric and Rakitik handle the midfield boat, that's about their only attacking option because their best striker Mandzukic's suspension means that they don't really have an in-form forward to take the spot. So again something stop-gap.

 

[destinyunknown]

Corluka has had a great season, Lovren as well, and Srna is still one of the best right backs in the world. The left back is an issue, and their defensive organization hasn't been the best during the qualifiers, but if the new coach has managed to solve that, they shouldn't have many problems at the back.

 

[HBK]

Regardless of Croatias undeniable quality, Brazil will win. It'll be close though.