Yes, thats exactly what i mean. Only on the paper Brazil and France finish top of the group, in reality anything could happen
I am particularly keen on Brazil coming second as want to see them play Germany in SP in the 2nd round.
The semi-finals will be Argentina vs. Germany and Brasil vs. France. As we know Germany OWNS Argentina (1990, 2006, 2010,2014) so Germany defeats Argentina and goes to the final. As we know France OWNS Brasil (1986, 1998, 2006) so France wins and goes to the Final. In the Final France defeats Germany 3-1.
Sounds reasonable. France-Germany is my prefered final as long as the French come out victiorous. It's between France, Germany and Brazil this year. I would be highly surprised if a team outside of that trio wins it.
This is the year that Argentina finally gets its act together and wins the while thing. My alternate theory is that Spain, which is long overdue to win the whole thing finally delivers. I don't think they bring as strong a team player-for-player as they have in years past, but that's the type of team that can over perform as a unit and take others by surprise.
That's 57 in dog years! Way too long for those of us with ties to "la seleccion". Besides, we're still pissed off about getting ripped off in 2002. And then Javier Clemente's" "tenemos equipo para ser campaigns". (We have a championship team). Things will be "tudo bem" after Spain does its "pinta a sete" routine in Russia.
I'll go with a little surprising pick. Belguim-Spain for the grand final. That's because I don't trust Brazil against European top opposition. Brazil could get knocked out by a Central European team for the fourth consecutive time since 2006. All these teams that knocked out Brazil went on to the Final. 2006: France in the quarters 2010: Netherlands in the quarters 2014: Germany in the semis 2018: Belguim in the quarters????????
I think Brazil vs Germany or France vs Germany are the two most likely finals to happen. Although as an argentinian I dream of a final against Brazil. That would be historical because it is the biggest final that still didn't happen and it is also a rivalry. Among the considered 4 biggest national teams (Brazil, Germany, Italy and Argentina) the only ones left are Argentina vs Brazil and Italy vs Argentina finals, but Brazil vs Argentina is definetely the most important that hasn't been played among all options. But for that to happen both Argentina and Brazil would probably have to defeat their two black beasts, I'm talking of Germany and France respectively.
Wow never heard the term "black beast" before. That's like nemesis and Achilles heel in one word? I just laughed thinking about the circus that would start if a news person in the US would use that word in a newscast today.
"Bestia negra" is how we say in spanish to those teams that always win when playing against the same adversary. For example Germany always beats Argentina, France always beats Brazil or Italy always beats Germany. So we would say Italy is the black beast of Germany. I don't know where that comes from but it is how we say it. I didn't know how to say it in english so I made a literal translation haha It is like that team you are afraid to confront the same way you would be afraid to fight against a beast I suppose.
Chiming in from Germany here: My pick would be Germany - France. In Germany, people are not confident about winning the cup, but the team is seen as a contender. The good omens include the fact that many of the established players who have been off form or injured for a long time are finding their stride again. This includes Müller, Boateng, Götze, Reus and Gündogan (everybody is expecting Reus and Gündogan to sustain an injury again somewhere before the tournament starts, but it would be nice for them to make it for once). The newcomers have also continued to develop nicely, in particular Sane, Goretzka and Rüdiger (Serge Gnabry has also made great strides this season, but flown under the radar a bit; I hope Löw will take him along). The biggest asset is the large variety in midfield and the fact that we have a backline consisting of Kimmich-Hummels-Boateng that basically plays together the entire year (if Neuer can be fully fit for the tournament, that would be even better). The biggest worry is in attack: Werner has been off-form for a while now and Gomez is not considered to be really great anymore. I think France, Spain and perhaps also Belgium may boast more individual star power than Germany, but none of these teams have really gelled well yet with the new generation. The same is true for England, where a lot of good things are happening, but I believe they will need to gel more as a team first. I think is a Brazil is a bit of a mixed bag and we have yet to see how the current team matches up against the European teams, but I do feel like they are a bit overrated right now, I don't see them among the top three contenders for the title. Argentina still has probably the strongest offense in the world, but their defense is even less prominent than four years ago and then it was the defense that got the team into the final, not the offense. Not sure if Mascherano, Otamendi and co. can pull off another series of masterclasses like that again. When I look at the most likely pairings for the round of 16 as posted by BocaFan above, I feel we may have a final without South American participation. My money is on Germany - France.
I'd say our weakest line is our midfield rather than our defense. The defense may not be the best but I think we can do something decent with Otamendi in great level, Mercado is playing well for Sevilla, Tagliafico is playing great at Ajax and Mascherano is not the same as 4 years ago but I believe he can work if he is well accompanied. Again, it is far from the greatest defense in the tournament but we can do something decent. The last World Cup everybody thought we were weak in defense before the tournament. What condemns Argentina is our midfield, it is very weak, we don't have any good defensive midfielders (Mascherano can't play there anymore) and Biglia is just a standard midfielder. And we don't have players who can conect well with the attack. We may have the strongest attack and a decent defense but we have no one to give the ball to the forwards. Any decent team with a good midfield will win the battle in the middle and will not let our attackers touch the ball.