Since 1970, Italy has made the final every 12 years, alternately losing (both times to Brazil) and winning: 1970: Italy 1-4 Brazil 1982: Italy 3-1 Germany 1994: Italy 0-0 Brazil (2-3 on penalties) 2006: Italy 1-1 France (5-3 on penalties) So, if this pattern holds, Italy will make the final in 2018, and will lose, probably to Brazil.
It will have been 60 years since Brazil (or any South American team) won a world cup in Europe....personally I can't see it...
You're a fool if you think south American teams, more notably Brasil and Argentina will fall away. No chance what so ever Brasil won't continue to produce outstanding talent. They're the best team in the history of the game and will always remain at the top.
That would be almost nothing compared to the over 100 years it took an european team to win, its first ever in South America, and that only happened last year...
******** off with your Europe vs south America shit. Aren't of some shit origin anyway you ********ing moron.
Brazil 1-7 Germany......Brazil 0-3 Netherlands.....in the fcuking World Cup...in Brazil...!! worst back to back performances by ANY host nation in the history of the World Cup...Brazil USED to be great. Not so much any more. World's worst losers...every single time....world's dirtiest team when thing aren't going well...every single time...
A bit of cherry picked stat. Bottom line, the weakest Brasil team ever still made the semis. They're not great, that's true, but I have to say Brasil are a bit underestimated right now. People going on as if they're rubbish while they have guys like Neymar, Marcelo, Willian, Marquinos, Danilo and Costa all hitting their prime now or soon they. They bottomed out (even though that 'bottom' was still 3 rounds further than England) and seem to be rising now. They are most definitely a threat to win. Just need to keep their composure when things get tense....
Wrong. I was at Goodison Park in Liverpool in 1966 on a rainy mid week evening to watch Brazil get taken to the cleaners by Hungary. THAT was the worst Brazilian team as they never made it out of the group stage...
Doesn't mean they were the worst. They just under-achieved. And advancing from the group-stage was far tougher to do back in '66. Anyway, you missed my point by a distance only slightly less than the distance between England and a second world cup.
Russia will, since Putin will blackmail all the refs, and make sure whomever is playing Russia gets food poisoning.
Why blackmail them when he can just have them show up dead 'from mysterious circumstances' in some stairwell in Moscow...?
Geez, did you just watch the James Bond film or was the propaganda that bad during the era in which you grew up in?
I doubt that politicians care that much about a sport to take things that far. The most suspicious things we've seen so far in WCs are: - 2002 Korea (dodgy call after dodgy call. Suspicious that a team that never did anything at the WC stage reaches the semis when they're hosting) - 1978 Argentina (6-0 wins happen but not usually at the precise moment you need one. Suspicious to say the least) - 1966 England (Again, a little suspicious that a team that never came close to winning a WC wins when they're hosting. Phantom goal too).
You don't think Russia cares enough about sports to use intimidation and underhanded tactics? I'm not saying they'll kill people like england66 mentioned in jest. But Russians do some shady stuff to athletes and those that oppose their athletes. I was trying to find an article I remembered from a couple years back about Russian clubs reneging wages and when the players didn't agree to it, bad stuff happened. This wasn't really the article I was looking for, but does illustrate the point. It even links to the story about Nikola Nikezic. http://backpagefootball.com/living-edge-footballers-threat-russia/99740/
This is their funny response: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/athletics/34785562 Maybe he's a tiny bit right in fact (remember 1966 and ephedrine; or 1990s Juve and the Rome lab if ones likes) but unintentionally he's admitting guilt all the time. It's a bit funny. Wenger too, for whom has missed. http://www.eurosport.co.uk/football...-a-blind-eye-to-doping_sto4987055/story.shtml
Today, it'd be easy to say Germany. Good talent and great structure. But 4 years is a long time and only Brazil in 58 and 62 has repeated as champions. The closest anyone has come since then was Brazil in 98 and Argentina in 90. Both reached the finals in struggling fashion (Argentina more so than Brazil). France looked like clear favorites in 02 and the team fell apart with Zidane's injury. Brazil looked like clear favorites in 2006 with amazing talent on paper and great WCQ form but the team was clearly unfocused and not hungry. Italy didn't make it out of 2010 group stage. And in 2014, Spain looked sure to challenge for the back-to-back title with a golden generation still playing well only to bow out in the group stage. Brazil is starting to look promising talent wise. Still would be nice for a real striker to pop up. So if coaching can find a good system to get the best out of the upcoming talent, they will be contenders. France is also looking promising talent wise. Argentina will have to go through some reformulation. They were already one of the oldest if not the oldest team in 2014. Spain will also need to inject some young blood into the team as the golden generation has gone by. Not sure I seen enough there. Italy is always hard to predict but I don't see them having a chance. Outside of the main favorites it's really tough to call out another team. I see some saying Colombia, but for these countries, depth is always an issue. Plus WC 2014 flattered them based on an easy group. In CA 15 they already looked fairly average.