since I've been following the game: 2002 - Argentina & France 2006 - Brazil I think?? Not totally sure about this, I wasn't paying as much attention to the punditry this year. 2010 - Brazil & Spain And who were the initial favorites in other tournaments pre-2002?
1998 France - Brazil 1994 Brazil 1990 Netherlands - Italy 1986 France, Brazil, Argentina 1982 Brazil, Argentina 1978 Argentina, Germany, Netherlands 1974 Netherlands 1970 Brazil, Italy, Germany, England 1966 Brazil, England, Portugal 1962 Brazil 1958 ? 1954 Hungary
France wasn't a favorite before the 1998 WC, or in the way the Netherlands were favorite this year, i.e. people ranked them as part of the 6 or 7 teams that could win it. They had not even participated in the previous 2 WC. So not consensus favourite at all. In 1994, as surprising as it sounds, Colombia was to a lot of pundits (most notably Pelé) favorite to win the cup, and failed at the 1st round. But I don't think they were consensus favorites too. I don't think there is a clear consensus for the favorites for each and every WC, so that might be hard to answer the question for a lot of WCs.
True about Colombia. They had the next best odds after Brazil in '94. And I believe Spain was also a favourite in 1998--which made their elimination all the more shocking. I remember Luis Enrique began to cry while still playing in the final group game.