neuro11 wrote:I am surprised to see so many people think Argentina could reach last 4. their keeper and mid is average and defense is poor......I doubt they can pass the hurdle of quarter this time as well.....

If Mascherano plays holding midfielder and Di Maria continues his form at CM then they only really need one other midfielder to partially pull their weight and they'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Also they have a relatively easy path to the semis, with the only hard match being Portugal/Belgium.

guest_07 wrote:Who will flop? argentina
Who will top? bosnia
Which big country will exit unexpectedly at the group stages? brazil
Who will be the top scorer? dzeko
Where will this WC rank? the best wc in all time
Will Messi score at least one goal? he will score half goal, not even one

Have to say this is the most shocking set of replies anyone could have thought of to the original questions. Every single answer is in itself a shocker.

Ganso wrote:Winner: Brazil
Runners Up: Spain
3rd Place: Germany
4th Place: Argentina
Golden Ball: Nerman
Golden Boot: Fred
Golden Gloves: Iker

Winner : Argentina

Runners Up : Brazil

  

If this really happens then Messi will become even greater than Maradona because winning on Brazilian soil will mean even more to Argentines than the previous two world cups do. On top of that if we can beat Brazil in the final then that will be the icing on the cake. 1950 all over again with Uruguay being replaced by Argentina.

Doc wrote:Golden Ball: Iniesta

I can't explain in words how delirious I would be if this actually happened but he's already won man of the match in a world cup and Euro final, won a world cup, 2 Euros and been player of the tournament at Euro 2012. So I just cannot bring myself to be greedier than that. For almost every other player at WC 2014 there is a long way to go to match these achievements.

For what it's worth :-

Winner: Argentina
Runners Up: Brazil
3rd Place: Italy
4th Place: Germany
Golden Ball: Messi
Golden Boot: Higuain
Golden Gloves: Buffon

Valkyrja wrote:Who will flop? Germany (semis).

To consider a semi final flopping - I'm touched

Strange that people have so much expectations from Uruguay. If you look at their squad it has hardly changed in many years and there are too many weary bodies there. They will fight, use the environment to their advantage and if Suarez is fit then use his genius the best they can but how much can possibly be achieved with just that. I am the last person to back England but after seeing England's youthful squad I wouldn't be surprised if Uruguay exit in the group stages.

For what it's worth :-


Who will flop? Belgium - too much expectations have been placed on those who have done too little to justify them and that will be enough to crush them as happened with Colombia 1994.

Who will top? Argentina

Which big country will exit unexpectedly at the group stages? Uruguay (not sure whether they can be called a big country and whether the exit can be called unexpected)

Who will be the top scorer? Higuain

Where will this WC rank? Agree with alfred that this should be the best since France 98

Will Messi score at least one goal? Of course but more importantly he will lay several on a plate for Higuain to gobble up

.

[Who will flop?

Dare I say Spain? Worn out and tired squad with no new ideas because Pep no longer coaches any of the players.

Chile will give them fits with their pressing and this Dutch team is alot better than they seem on paper.

But realistically my pick would be Portugal. Ghana are tough, Germany are Germany, Cristiano isnt fit and their defence is declining individually.


Who will top?

By this that means win, I guess my pick will be Brazil..but they always do better when you count them out, which isnt happening now..plus, Neymar may be a bit young to carry them all the way.

Which big country will exit unexpectedly at the group stages?

I thought this was the flop part, same answer really. Portugal.

Who will be the top scorer?

Fred

Where will this WC rank?

No idea

Will Messi score at least one goal?

Yep, some kind of tap in at least. No Jubilani to stand in his way.

The Franchise wrote:[Who will flop?

Dare I say Spain? Worn out and tired squad with no new ideas because Pep no longer coaches any of the players.

I don't disagree with this but I also think nothing much can be done and people are unfairly blaming VDB for the most part. He has a team which has achieved more success than any other international team in the history of football with many world class players set in their roles. Firstly it's not easy to drop players of this stature just because they had one poor season or something like that. Secondly bringing in new players means some of them will take time to adapt to this style and dynamic. With time a new dynamic will be created with a different set of players but there isn't time for that now. After a team wins a lot it inevitably goes through a period of transition and pretty much no one can prevent that from happening.

I agree honestly, its not a simple situation at all. Spain almost have too much talent, therefore making the decision to drop players harder.

The Franchise wrote:I agree honestly, its not a simple situation at all. Spain almost have too much talent, therefore making the decision to drop players harder.

Exactly. Spain's situation is not at all like Italy 2010 when half of the squad was way past being at a world cup in what could be called a truly insane selection. Here we have a group of players for few of whom people suspect they are past their best and few are not coming off great seasons but they are all immense players who at the right moment are well capable of still surprising us. Until they actually flop big time no coach can just throw them out like that and replace them with the flavours of the season. A few selections are certainly debatable but that's the case with pretty much every team at WC 2014.

boyzis wrote:I was supporting Spain and Holland last time both reached the final. Spain because of sesk and Holland because of rvp. It went to the wire and fab set up inesta to score the winner.

After that sesk betrayed arsenal and left us. I never really forgotten sesk antics but I made my peace with him. Rvp also left us and he was a bigger betrayer.

This time im not sure which team to support But i like germany england this time. I have kits of spain and brazil it would be great if these 4 teams reach the final stages.

Sesk is no longer sesk he is an enemy he is fabregas now

Brazil Spain England Germany I hope they reach semi final stages

Ozil is my fav player and Germany is my fav team.

So spain didnt reach the final stages lets see what England do today. Hopefully Hodgson gets the team selection right otherwise bye bye to England WC hopes.


That includes rooney on the bench or CF

so another big team will be eliminated tonight .....that is, if we atall can call England/Urugay big team....

Spain's situation is the same as France post 2006... a TON of talent, but no leadership.  Zidane was unquestioned and everyone fell in line.  But once he was gone...  Vieira, Henry, Abidal, Evra, Thuram, Gallas, Sagnol, Makelele, Malouda, Ribery, Benzema, Anelka, etc. were just a bunch of names with no team concept.  With so many stars, it's hard for a leader to emerge and nobody did in the end.

The strength of Spain was that it was a collective... you didn't have a R9, Zidane, etc. that was a prime player.  But you had a leadership group of Iker, Puyol, Xavi and Villa + most of them played for either Barca or Madrid.  Now, there's an identity crisis.  In WC 2010, you had Iker, Ramos and Alonso from Madrid, Pique, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets from Barca, Villa from Valencia, Capdevila from Villareal and Torres from Liverpool.  So 8/11 were from Madrid or Barca, 2/11 from other La Liga teams and 1/11 from abroad.

Post this WC, you are looking at 5/11 from Barca or Madrid (Busquets , Pique, Ramos, Alba and Iniesta) and 6/11 from various foreign teams (De Gea, Javi Martinez, Azpilicueta, David Silva, Diego Costa, Thiago).  

Can they implement tiki taka with players from so many different teams playing different styles?  Who are the leaders?  If not tiki taka, what is a better system for them?

A lot of questions.... the biggest ones are leadership and an identity.  These two have to be figured out for Spain to become a team as opposed to a bunch of stars thrown together.

U r right there are many different type of players in the spanish team. Ideally the team would seem better like this as they can use different styles to their advantage however in case of spain they had a Crisis Of Styles which ultimately caused their failure.

But for me tiki taka will need to tempered with it cant survive like this. The revolutionary heynckes lvg wenger klop should be looked at closely. They structured clockwork into systems which made it successful.

One thing about Spain though, they really lack dat one super talented forward/winger who will decide a game by himself.They don't have a Messi, a Neymar or a Suarez.The closest they have to that is Iniesta and even then, he's not exactly someone who decides a match score consistently.

Brilliant from dani to predict that both Spain and Portugal won't make it out of their groups!

BusterLfc wrote:
Golden Gloves: Keylor Navas

       

at least i got that one right (hopefully)

Robespierre wrote:
Who will top? Germany
.

I was the only to write it

Robespierre wrote:

Robespierre wrote:
Who will top? Germany
.

I was the only to write it

Well done

boyzis wrote:

boyzis wrote:I was supporting Spain and Holland last time both reached the final. Spain because of sesk and Holland because of rvp. It went to the wire and fab set up inesta to score the winner.

After that sesk betrayed arsenal and left us. I never really forgotten sesk antics but I made my peace with him. Rvp also left us and he was a bigger betrayer.

This time im not sure which team to support But i like germany england this time. I have kits of spain and brazil it would be great if these 4 teams reach the final stages.

Sesk is no longer sesk he is an enemy he is fabregas now

Brazil Spain England Germany I hope they reach semi final stages

Ozil is my fav player and Germany is my fav team.

Got it ! That's 2 wcs now ! Last time I was with spain and this time with Germany !

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Think it's pretty obvious we're going to win the WC. Look at our squad ffs.

Muller & Gotze will be unstoppable.

Germany <3

I predicted Spain in 2010, but I also said back in 2010 Germany would win it in 2014

However, when 2014 came I changed my mind to Brazil or Argentina.

VivaStPauli wrote:Who will flop?
Germany - gonna look good till quarters or semis, at which point a Löw brain fart will ruin their tactics, and they'll lose while looking "the better side", as all commentators will later agree.
Who will top?
Brazil - Gonna win it if they can get past Uruguay
Which big country will exit unexpectedly at the group stages?
Portugal, if you can call that unexpected. - No chance in that group, not for those choke artists.
Who will be the top scorer?
Suarez - Uruguay will keep going until they meet Brazil.
Where will this WC rank?
2006><2010 - No Vuvuzelas, but there'll also be a lot embarrassment over provincial corruption etc.
Will Messi score at least one goal?
Nope - Just because his international career is cursed, I can't actually back this up, it's a feeling.

At least I called Portugal. Cute how I was wrong about everything, though.