Woh ! It surprised me to not see Colombia anywhere in the comments ! Take it I'm Colombian and this might be competently biased but I feel they are in the top at the moment. (Id say their 6th though) My list would go as follows. 1. Brasil 2.Germany 3.Spain 4.Holland ! 5.Belgium ( Anticipating they are the surprise of the WC) even though we all know how great of a team they have. I did not include Argentina because even though they ran over the CONMEBOL with their lethal attacking scheme and players up front I don't feel they are a strong TEAM. And if we're ranking teams then I'm looking for their equilibrium on both facets of the game. OFFENCE AND DEFENSE. I placed Brasil 1st because I strongly believe we will see something very similar to the Confederations Cup this year. Brasil is playing at home and they are fueled by it, many doubts before the competition started and many mouths shut once it was over. Plus! They have non other than Luis Felipe Scolari, former WC champion w/ Brasil (2002) and 4th place with Portugal (2006) and that is highly important in a WC, an experienced coach and he already showed his work like I said in the Confederations beating top squads, Spain in the final and they did it convincingly Brasil has everything to win this next WC.
1. Brazil 2. Germany 3. Spain 4&5 are interchangeable with the following teams; Argentina, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, England, Colombia, France and Portugal.
I'm not talking about Germany and Argentina deserving their fair share, I'm mostly talking about somebody picking 5 NT to win it all, and not including on their list Brazil and Spain. Right there you got 40% odds of being right! Germany and Argentina you just added another 15% odds, then it's a crap shoot from there.
I see .... but those 4 got most votes as the result - so it's not that bad ... of course some others have right to pick their NT , let's say england (over Spain), and they dislike Brazil so ...
First off I gotta say I like this "Oye tio! Es que se me falla la memoria, cuantas estrellas tiene vuestra camiseta? " Vale tio! Well I explained a bit why I placed them 1st in my last comment but.. I can see why it would be surprising to you and to a lot of people. Brasil for a while have been competing in friendlies and obviously not participating in qualifiers so they've been "quiet" in a way, although not last year with what they showed in the Confederations. I would say that's merit enough, for me at least and i'll tell you why. Leading up to the confederations there was doubt on Brasil like I said previously precisely because they had not been competing properly, were actually getting poor results in friendlies etc..But even so they made it clear that with the WC being in Brasil, it's gonna be tough for teams to bring them down. They count on the support of their people and I could tell in the confederations they played harder, better and faster than any team, granted, I know they WC is a whole other ball game but I feel Brasil can be victorious. They have fantastic players, Neymar has only gotten better in Barca, even though I hate to admit it being a Madrid fan. Oscar, Thiago Silva, Paulinho, absolutely great squad they count on and they proved they could compete with anyone. I mean, they're Brasil. And I'm not saying because they won the Confed they're the best because the Confed and the WC are a year apart and they're completely different tournaments but I'm saying they can do it, I feel they'll be the strongest team.
Under that logic, Brazil should of won the past 2 world cups, or atleast make the semis bare minimum. If you match confed, and WC final standings, it proves that tournament reveals nothing in regards to what will be seen the following year, and whom will reach the final four. You can milk that tournament as much as you like, but europeans have never, and will never take it seriously.
It's still a dress rehearsel/gala event yet it's slowly gaining in importance ... lots of points to earn for teams looking to land a topseed (e.g. Uruguay and Italy this time round) while an increasing number of viewers is turning up. In future Europeans might start paying more & more attention to it ... at the moment I'd have to agree that it's not that important. Nevertheless I'd favor Brazil and Germany over Spain at this moment ... it's very tight yet I feel that both Germany (2nd) and Brazil (1st) have a slight edge over Spain (3th) even after the Diego Costa saga ... Italy (5th) & Argentina (4th) to complete the top 5.
It's extremely hard to win those tournaments, not always the best team wins, and as you can remember due to the last World Cup, Spain had to have a bit of luck to win the tournament, they didn't dominate all the way. Nothing reveals nothing about a tournament which is yet to have been played, yet people bet based on the team's form and history, so the people that put money into this see those tournaments and friendlies as revelation.. go figure. You have no idea how Spain will do on the next world cup, you don't know if Germany will make the semi finals again, you're not even sure France or Portugal (which was considered the darkhorse by some people) will make the WC. Bottom line is.. you can't predict the future. But you can take an educated guess based on previous results and current team form.
Exactly. Not even qualifying (or Euro / CA) is an indication of WC performance. Other facts not to be ignored are team changes due to form or injury. Brazil 06 didn't have a fat Ronaldo weighing down the attack in CC 05. Brazil 2010 had Kaka', the main attacking piece of the attack, clearly not 100% and then the unavailability of 2 key players in the same position (Elano and his sub Ramires) for the Netherlands game.
i see it mentioned often on here how Argentina lacks in defense, but they only gave up 15 goals in qualifying which puts them second best in CONMEBOL and only two more than Colombia
1. Argentina 2. Netherlands 3. Italy 4. Colombia 5. Switzerland i cant put Brazil in the top 5 simply due to lack of important matches lately so i dont have a feel for where they stand Spain was not one of the 5 best teams in qualifying IMO
That's BS While I do not take Confed cup as a means to measure the strength of the teams in next WC, since 12months away is a long time with many things changes, but to "EXCUSE" that European NT did not take Confed cup seriously is pure BS. Why France *in their best form went on winning 2 consecutive confeds 2001 and 2003? (note they lost badly at WC2002 in between and won Euro 2000 just 1 year before)
1 - Argentina 2 - Brazil 3 - Germany 4 - Spain 5 - Colombia 6 - Netherlands 7 - Uruguay 8 - Chile 9 - Belgium 10 - Ecuador
I mean honestly. Lack of important matches after finishing first on the Confed Cup.. which is worth more than any qualifying match. Spain not the best 5 teams in qualifying but won the Euro and made the final of the Confed. Italy which was beaten by Brazil AND Spain ahead of both. Colombia which tied Brazil last time they played but was pressured the whole game and controlled from start to finish (plus a missed Neymar PK) Switzerland always has a solid defense, sure I can see why the Dutch are always a solid team, sure I can see why.
Top 5 is boring. My, admittedly subjectively based, top 20 would be as follows: 1- Brazil 2- Spain 3- Argentina 4- Germany 5- Colombia 6- Italy 7- Netherlands 8- Ghana 9- Chile 10-Uruguay 11- Nigeria 12- Belgium 13- England 14- Portugal 15- Sweden 16- Ivory Coast 17- Japan 18- Bosnia 19- Switzerland 20- USA
If you had to choose one, would you rather brazil win the confed tournament and miss the world cup , or brazil qualify for the world cup?
Mexico won the tournament much before it was what it is now, It was the King Afad's Cup or something like that
He said Brazil has a lack of important matches, I just said Confed Cup (total of 5 matches) are more important than 5 randomly selected matches from qualifiers in South America. We're not judging participation of one over something else. Or your stupid question would work the same way for Spain, would you rather have Spain win the Euro or qualify for the World Cup? But that's not his argument, his argument is that even if Spain won the Euro they don't deserve to be top 5 because they were not among the best qualifying teams in Europe.
My biggest issue with Spain is their age. They really remind me of Brazil in 2006. Confident defending champions with a starting lineup made of aging big names who really shouldn't be starting anymore.