WORLD CUP 2018 FAVOURITES

Before analyzing world cup 2018 favourites, it is necessary to go back in time to history. History traced back to 1930 when the inaugural football most prestigious tournament was staged in Uruguay has been considered as the one most powerful unifying factor outside religion and politics to bring hearts of humankind on the same pedestal of loyalty and love for the cause of the nation, which they stand to represent.

Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with president Jules Rimet as the driving force, looked at staging its own international tournament outside of Olympic and on 28 May 1928, the FIFA congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship and the beginning of new era commenced in world football.

After so much amateurish display in organizational structure and in caliber of players who converged at the maiden edition of the mundial, history began its cause of documentation with Lucien Laurent becoming the first goal scorer at the first ever world cup organized by FIFA and Uruguay defeated Argentina 4-2 in front of 93,000 people in Montevideo and became the first eventual winner of the tournament.

More of a mandatory faithful ritual has WORLD CUP tournament turned to since inception. Every four (4) years, the best 32 senior teams of qualified nations converge to slug it out for world most widely watched tournament and for the world’s most coveted trophy of any high profile football player. After four years of another wait for the most valuable football competition in the world, the tournament kicks off on Thursday 14 June 2018, in Russia, as the host nation Russia takes on Saudi Arabia in what is expected to bring a highly colourful opening ceremony along with it.

The last edition of the tournament hosted by Brazil (5 times winner) was a successful one as Germany edge out the Messi led Argentina side courtesy of a Mario Gotze 112th minute strike which gave the Europeans a well deserved victory after disgracing the host nation in the semifinals with a 7-1 thrashing.

With the mundial stage set for a kickoff today, it is highly imperative to point out the favourites out of the 32 teams competing to lift the trophy in July and without conceding sentiment to self, the opinion expressed in this article is of the writer and not the general assumption of the readers.

With all the 32 teams in high spirits and motivated to contest for the trophy, we consider it worthwhile to give account of some teams that have come a long way and edge over the others when it comes to local competitions in national league, administration, organizational structure, individual performance, team play, team depth, culture and history and of course without undermining the place of experience.

It is no news that all the countries participating in the competition have all released their 23-man squad and they are all already in Russia ready for the competition to begin.

These are the countries that qualified for this year’s competition;

Host Country: Russia

Europe: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay.

Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia.

Asia: Australia, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea.

North America: Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama.

Meet our World Cup 2018 Favourites

GERMANY

The defending champions are the first on the list and they are coming into this competition as the team to win the title back to back in the modern era. Joachim Low, regarded by many as one of the best coaches of the last decade and who of course was their gaffer at the last tournament and also guided a young German squad to victory during the confederation’s Cup held last year in Russia.

He released a 23-man squad with notable exclusions in the likes of Mario Gotze who scored the only goal that won them the world cup the last term in Brazil as well as one of the brightest stars in the world football and 2017/2018 EPL season PFA young player of the year Leroy Sane.

This has however brought about a lot of debates since the squad was released. But judging from the squad released there is no doubt about the squad depth and also quality presence which can achieve the dream of winning the competition back to back.

They have the right weapons in their arsenal with good team spirit in the sense that the coach did not lose faith in the players who shot the country to victory In Brazil and thus, has kept most of them in the squad for this year’s Mundial.

BRAZIL

The most successful team in the world cup is concerned and they were also among the first teams to qualify for the competition coming from the COMMEBOL. When you talk about the world cup and the favourites to win it you cannot but mention the Seleccao because they have always come to the party in every world cup competitions and as favourite.

They lost disgracefully in the semifinals of the last world cup which they hosted by conceding 7 times in the hand of highly energetic and pacy Germans after losing their star player in the tournament Neymar in a Quarterfinal match against Columbia through injury. The game ended 7-1 in favour of Germany who were the eventual winner of the tournament.

The Samba boys will want to make a statement in Russia and go all the way to the finals. In their squad, they have the most expensive footballer in history Neymar who plays for PSG, Marcelo a Real Madrid player who is considered one of the best-left fullbacks in the World if not the best and also a good shot stopper Alisson Becker. Tite’s team is built around the former Barcelona man Neymar who they put all their hopes on to fire on all cylinder and give them the deserved victory.

SPAIN

The La Furia Roja will be hoping to put their disappointing performance at the last world cup in Brazil at their back and forge ahead. The team failed to get past the group stage losing their first two games before getting a consolation win in the last game. Since then the Spanish National team side has acquired the services of Julen Lopetegui who is being tasked with the job of reviving the spirit of the team. In doing this he has added a crop of young talents to his team going to Russia.

They are the only team heading into this competition with a good winning mentality; the last time they lost a game was in 2016 in the European championship against Italy in the second round.

The Spanish team is known for their dominance and classic style of play which is tagged “tiki-taka”, the style which won them the world cup in South Africa in 2010 but it’s all thanks to the first team players filled with 6 Barcelona first team players and it was easy for the rest to connect with them. There is a conviction in the hearts of Spanish faithful that their present young squad led by Sergio Ramos and Andres Iniesta can fire the team to glory in Russia.

Early yesterday Julen Lopetegui was sacked and was replaced by Real Madrid legend and Spain sporting director Fernando Hierro. Lopetegui was sacked for announcing his deal with Real Madrid at a vital moment for the team. He was sacked 48-hours to their first game against Portugal, hopefully, this won’t affect their course in Russia.

ARGENTINA

The finalist in 2014 is also favourites in this football competition as they only lost the ultimate prize last term to an extra time heartbreaking goal from Mario Gotze.

The team posses a good crop of players in their squad, notably Lionel Messi who is arguably the greatest footballer all time. The Argentine number 10 was the winner of the golden ball in Brazil scoring four goals. He will want to top that performance in this year’s competition by taking his team all the way to the final and winning this time around.

The only problem they’ve had in the previous tournament is all other players have failed to come to the party which have seen them lost 3 finals in a row. The AFA has acquired the services of Jorge Sampaoli who revived the team with help of Messi by taking them to mundial when all hopes were lost in the qualifying series.

They start their campaign against the newcomers in the competition Iceland.

FRANCE

The 1998 champions are heading into this competition as the team with the best squad depth, even the combined XI of the team left behind can win a football tournament if given a chance according to pundits.

Didier Deschamp led side can boast of 2-3 players in each position who also plays for top clubs and are top performers in their respective positions. They lost in the finals of the Euros to Portugal in 2016 a tournament in which they were the host nation, a disappointing final they’ve put behind them and are all fired up for this Mundial in Russia.

They have a good squad with top-notch young talents players, with the likes of Griezmann, Pogba and Mbappe to mention a few. Will Deschamp be able to take advantage of the good squad in his hands? That will be a question the team will have to answer with their performance in Russia.

With the highlight and painstaking run through of the favourite teams to win the mundial in Russia, it is worthy of note that football has evolved from the era of having underdogs in the game. Who says it can’t be a world cup of surprises with an unexpected team going on to win it. With our fingers crossed as the world cup kicks-off on today. Good luck to all the teams

By: Abiola Raphael Oumide

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