With less than a week until the start of the World Cup, all teams are preparing for their journey to win the most prestigious trophy in the world. This year’s World Cup is expected to be one of the best World Cups in history with over 715 million expected viewers.
The host country is not always the favorite to win the World Cup, but this year Brazil is the host country and it will be a huge disappointment to their country if they lose. While Brazil is the favorite, reigning champions Spain are also expected to go far. Spain’s national team has dominated the soccer world over the past four years, with their possession style of play along with their uncountable amount of star players. For most of the last four years Spain has looked unbeatable, but last year Brazil proved that they can be beaten by beating them in front of their home crowd 3-0.
Other teams that look like they can move on to the final rounds are Germany, Italy, and Argentina with all them having star players that their teams rely on. Last World Cup’s runner-up, Netherlands, is expected to make it out of their group stage, but they are not expected to make it that much farther. Netherlands has Spain in their group and assuming that Spain will dominate their group stage; Netherlands will get the second seed in their group and will most likely end-up having to play Brazil in the next round. Although they stand a chance against Brazil in the Round of 16, it looks unlikely that Brazil, being such a powerhouse this year, will lose in the Round of 16.
The dark horse in this year’s World Cup is Belgium. They are a young team with a bunch of upcoming superstars. The have many outstanding forwards and midfielders along with having one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Their team’s only problem is their lack of experience, since they have not been in the World Cup since 2002.
The U.S. had an outstanding qualifying stage and is looking to continue that great play into the World Cup. They won 7 out of their 10 games and that was good enough to win their group. While they were in the middle of qualifying they also had the Gold Cup. In the Gold Cup they easily got through the first rounds and went on to win the whole tournament.
One of the most promising things about this year’s U.S men’s team is the play of U.S. Forward Jozy Altidore. He was outstanding in qualifying. He got on many goal streaks and helped lead their team to many victories. The only problem with Altidore is he has recently been struggling with his English club team Sunderland. He only had one goal throughout his whole season for Sunderland. Hopefully that goalless streak does not carry on into the World Cup.
Another great thing about this year’s U.S. team going into the World Cup is that their coach Jurgen Klinsmann has gotten some new youngsters on the roster that show huge promise. Julian Green, a youngster out of the German team Bayern Munich, is a very fast striker who could make a huge impact on the World Cup. Another young player is Aron Johansson. Johansson is a clinical striker who has the potential to be one of the U.S’s top players.
This World Cup could either be a disaster or a huge success for the U.S.. They will have to play some of the top players in the world, and with their unstable defense, guarding those players will be a hard challenge. Hopefully the U.S. can go on a run and upset a couple of teams.
Below are editors picks:
Brandon (Online Editor):
Winner: Brazil
Runner- up: Belgium
How far will the U.S. make it: Knocked Out in round of 16
Cayhan(News Editor):
Winner: Germany
Runner- up: Brazil
How far will the U.S make it: Knocked out in the group stage
Daniel(Sports Editor):
Winner: Brazil
Runner-up: Spain
How far will the U.S. make it: Knocked out in the round of 16