Too early to make predictions? Why not? For me at this point the favorites are Germany, Argentina, Chile and France
Russia....because Putin is going to make sure everyone they play comes down with food poisoning the night before But on a more serious note, it is going to depend somewhat on whether or not Messi un-retires. Otherwise I'd say Germany are the clear favorites, with Belgium and Chile also in the running.
A lot of question marks around Argentina right now. As of now I had them as the only Non-UEFA contender. Italy is looking good right now at the Euros. Still need to see more of France. And since Switzerland likely won't feature in this discussion I will leave you with this if you haven't seen it:
UEFA Croatia with darkhorse credentials written all over them with all their best players just about in their prime in 2018. Belgium in my opinion will be a generation of 'flatter to deceive', Spain will need to bounce back, but with their greatest generation of all in the twilight of their careers and the next gen not exactly up to par I think 2018 will be too early. Holland are in identity crisis but I think they will bounce back strong in 2018 and might even make a deep run. Let's all ignore England. That leaves the usual suspects of Germany, France and Italy. And I think it'll be between those teams, but I'm going with Italy. CONMEBOL From South America only Chile seem to have their head on straight and will be the main non-UEFA title threat. Argentina went all out self-destruct after the CA2016, while Brasil is in no-man's land and Uruguay seem toothless without Suarez. Would never rule them out of course, but they are obviously in rebuilding phases and who knows how long that may take. Colombia I don't think will be deep enough, too erratic. Would not expect South America 2018 to be as dominant in the group phases as in 2014 or 2010. CONCACAF USA is nowhere on track with regards to building a title-winning squad. Mexico got shown up by Chile, but their recent youth results would suggest they might have the youngsters to go a bit deeper than usual. AFC At best they will be counting for an improvement on their terrible 2014 campaign. CAF I know its lopsided, but who else to note Africa's chances if not me? A lot depends on who CAF sends. Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt all capable of putting up decent performances, but thats probably it. Ghana as usual will have a good team spirit, but they lack world class players with only Andre Ayew and maybe Kwadwo Asamoah likely to be a top player come 2018. Cote d'Ivoire will have superior defenders to what they had in prior tournaments, but the midfield and forward line is gone or quickly dissapearing. Egypt have a decent backbone with Salah, Elneny and are usually a great tournament team, so who knows? Tunisia - brrrr... Hopefully DRCongo instead and they can somewhat revenge the shame of 1974. I'm more interested in Senegal, if they qualify, will have the best selection of players of any African team since the 1990s Nigeria: Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulibaly, Cheikhou Kouyate are among the more widely respected names, but they have much more quality than that and depth as well, not to mention quality from back to front. Could make a run at least as deep as in 2002. The second issue is who qualifies from the ridiculous qualification group B of Algeria, Nigeria or Cameroon. Omitting the atrocity that would be the last team once again bringing Africa dishonor it's hopefully between Algeria and Nigeria. Algeria were arguably the most impressive African team in 2014 and they will be even stronger in 2018 (Riyad Mahrez will join Brahimi, Feghouli and possibly Adam Ounas - if you don't know him, look him up - for a super strong midfield), so they may well be a dark horse. If its Nigeria I think 2018 will be too early, but they could be a bona fide title contender for 2022 - Nigeria have a generation of TRUE 18-20 year olds that could make for a powerhouse African side (Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho all relatively household names already for EPL fans, but those are just those that had proper exposure already). Will be interesting to see them at the Rio Olympics, albeit it seems that the team coach will not be able to use their best players due to clubs holding on to players. That said a bunch of 20-23 year olds won't be grown up enough to threaten at 2018, plus the managerial situation in Nigeria is totally bonkers. 2018 is simply too early for them.
In terms of confederations these are the teams I think have the best chances of doing well. Asia 1.Australia 2.Korea Africa 1.Algeria 2.Nigeria Europe 1.Germany 2.Italy North America 1.Mexico 2.United States South America 1.Chile 2.Argentina
Chile would be a nice pick unless they face Brazil in a knock-out stage. They always seem to crap the bed against them. If they end up being on an opposite side of a bracket then I can see a deep run. But it is way too early to speculate. Chile is currently on the border of Qualifying.
Argentina is not on "self-destruct", that's just heat of the moment reactions. Messi will be back playing for the NT next summer at the latest, of that I have no doubts. I feel Argentina has another final in them if players such as Dybala, Lamela, Lanzini, Correa and Icardi are integrated well, sadly for their fans it seems they simply cannot overcome that last hurdle. Germany, Italy, France from UEFA, Belgium could be included but I feel they are somewhat chokers at this stage. Chile, Argentina and Uruguay (with Suarez) from Conmebol, Nigeria and Algeria from CAF, and no one from Concacaf or AFC really have a chance of even the semis as it looks now.
HA. I was just about to post something like that in regards to Brazil. 2018 the South Americans can be a lot like 2016 for Italy. Meaning nobody expecting much from the team and then exceeding expectations.
Before Japorea' 2002 nobody was appointing Brazil as favorites because we had a shaky qualifying campaign. By that time France, Argentina and Portugal were the favorites and they flopped in the group stage.
We are thinking on the same wavelength. A lot of what happens in Russia will depend on so many factors we just can't see right now. Many teams can flop and some teams just know when to turn it on at the right time.
Chile being overrated. First Chile needs to qualify (currently getting the last full berth) which is very hard, because Conmebol qualifiers aren't a joke like the ones in Concacaf or Uefa. Even if Chile qualifies, Brazil and Argentina will be above.
Croatia will be contender only if problem with criminal, corruption and nepotism in the FA is solved. Else, I don't see how will they manage to qualify from group stage - they can't go forward and can't show their full potential when lead by incapable managers, guys who are more suitable than capable to lead so many stars. Also, big problem is that they are happy with just getting to the final tournament - huge money influx - they are not interested in the final result. When they go out (after 1998 WC third place, we have qualified to seven tournaments, qualified from group stages only twice, never won knock-out match), they (the FA) try to convince us that we should be happy as our population is only like 5M and that we are poor country. Chile is my pick, they play amazing football lately, I love how they transform from defense to attack. I hope they won't face Brazil in 1/8 finals like last two times, although Brazil sucks.
No particular order, BELGIUM ARGENTINA GERMANY FRANCE ITALY NETHERLANDS Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The Thread title is favourites to win. We all know that the winner will probably be European, with a small chance of a South American nation winning. Its nice to note countries from elsewhere that may do well, but they wont win.
Dark horses would be chile, Belgium, croatia, wales, uruguay maybe portugal? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Germany was a bit shit too. Honestly S Korea did those 2 teams a big favour by eliminating Spain and Italy. I do not remember how good Spain was then but Italy was more than capable of winning in 2002
From a conspiracy theory standpoint, I don't think they would let Germany win in Russia (ww II) The Brazil win was given to them knowing full well they could not win in Russia. It'd be worse than Argentina winning in Brazil. Just like the Dutch (Boers : read that political history) could not win in South Africa. I say Brazil... Political friends of Russia is more likely to win. Argentina and Italy are also not likely going to win given the political history. This can all be proven wrong if Germany were to win euro 2016 in France. Though of the four teams remaining: France, Portugal, Wales, Germany are more likely to win in that order given politics. Has the Battison Schumacher sports articles been coming out yet lol?
Italy (ww2 allies of host) beating France in Germany 2006 Brazil winning in Japan/Korea 1994 2002 at neutral sites France wins at home 1998 following a freak reaction by Ronaldo Colombians reporting their tvs were tampered with and shown death threats before the game against the USA 1994 Their families held hostage Finally Germany (ww2 allies) winning Italian 1990
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIFA_World_Cup_finals Shows winners are all along political lines. Usually the host winning in its own country The exceptions neutral sites Like Mexico chile (ok sorta) Sweden in which case the talented Brazil won