Who do you think will win the World Cup?

Any team in the top 10.

It's so easy to have an easy run in the world cup. Argentina got to the final in the last world cup by playing Bosnia, just about winning 2-1. Then Iran, just about winning 1-0. Nigeria, just edging it 3-2. They beat Switzerland 1-0 in the R16. Beat Belgium 1-0 in The QF. Belgium have a good players but as a team they're terrible esp back in 2014.

Then in the semis they beat Netherlands on penalties.. If you look at that run of games. I don't see how any other team in the top 10 rankings doesn't have a chance of winning.

Other than Belgium, the rest of the teams you named were much stronger in 2006.

If you're not going to post any argument other than 'they were better in 2006' you are borderline trolling.

France had an ageing side who struggled to even qualify and only made it because Zidane came out of retirement at the age of 33. Even Zidane was past it by then. The current French squad is rammed, with several world class players, have just made a final and qualified with ease.

Argentina have Messi (better now than 2006), Aguero, Icardi, Di Maria, Mascherano, Dybala, Pastore & Higuain. Their defence is a bit older, but they are taking a strike force where two of their forwards average a goal a game and two are well over 1 in 2.

Spain have arguably the best GK in the world, a world class defence, midfield is rammed and in Costa they have one of the best strikers in the world too.

Germany weren't great in 2006, they were at the start of their journey back to the top.

Five Stars - superb. If only every football fan saw the routine, inane, pure and simple luck that dominates most football games... You would be my favourite pundit if only you had a job on BBC5live haha!

The world cup isn't even in the top 10 most competitive competitions or entertainment wise. The champions league is 10x the competition.

It's ruined by giving teams from Asia, Africa and some of Europe a chance. They should change it to 16 teams. 2 leg knock out games from the beginning and even then they'll find it hard to fill the competition with enough teams to be competitive.

It should be more like:

Germany v Colombia
Brazil v Mexico
Spain v Belgium
Italy v Switzerland
France v Uruguay
Argentina v England [They're not in top 10 but eh]
Netherlands v Chile
Portugal v Poland

Then the QF would look so good. eg:

Germany v Spain
Brazil v Argentina
Italy v Portugal
Netherlands v France

Semis: eg.

Brazil v France
Germany v Italy

Final: Brazil v Germany
3rd: France v Italy

I would watch each and every one of these games. At the current world cup i'll probably watch about 10% of them.
Edit: This way teams could play in their own countries. Having two legs each round for only the R16, QF, SF would mean teams only need to travel 3 times, max 4 over an entire month. There's no reason that they couldn't do this. The atmosphere would be much much better, the competitiveness, the desire in front of your own nation etc..

Germany weren't great? They got to the semi-final in 2006. They had one of the stronger squads in 2006.

I agree that the WC has been expanded way too much. I liked the old style of having two group stages (I think this was changed in '86 or 90' with a short knock-out stage. But as FIFA continues its money-making rampage across the globe, it's more likely the grow more and more. I imagine eventually, there will be a longer, cross-continental qualification stage. Perhaps even a pure knock-out tournament like the FA cup, but would be covered over two years.

It would be dreadful, I'd rather have your tournament - it should be an elite level competition.

You're right FIFA will keep expanding.

We'll just have to wait until they make it into the Universe Cup and then let's just hope some of the aliens put up a better fight than North Korea losing 7-1 to Portugal.

Whilst I think you're spot on with the final, historically Latin American teams don't do well in Europe. Only Argentina and Brazil have reached the last 16 of the last 3 European WC's (and neither got out of the 2nd group stage in Spain '82). So I think you're overestimating how well those teams will do in the groups. I wouldn't be surprised to see Russia finish above Uruguay, Denmark above Peru, Croatia above Argentina, and Poland above Columbia.

Thanks for that. I never predict anything thst has minimal odds of 4-1 but what your post shows is how easy Germany’s most likely route to the final potentially is.
And to a large extent Spains .Albeit they’d have to meet Germany in the semis .Dunno why you have Argentina beating Spain on the criteria you mentioned but still.
Yeah,a big help. Cheers.

Sochi, where the game would be played, has a similar climate to Buenos Aires and a lot of the most populated areas of Argentina, which is why I picked Argentina over Spain. But Spain could certainly win that game too, it’s wasn’t an easy match to decide. I’m glad I helped you out though!

Nah man, 2006 had better players (other than Messi and Ronaldo). The 2006 brazil squad was a dream team, you had stars on the bench because it was that loaded. Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldinho, Kaka etc etc