It is absolutely unbelievable that four years have elapsed since I was walking the streets of Rio de Janeiro and strolling along the world-famous Copacabana beach with tens of thousands of passionate Brazilian football fans and thousands of visitors as we all collectively paid homage to the greatest show on earth unfolding at the spiritual home of the beautiful game.
Brazil 2014 now represents the past, as Russia 2018 beckons. As the momentum builds and expectations rise. The advent of the World Cup finals in Russia in and of itself remains politically irritating to some members of the international community, but such is the power of the people’s game, that even Russia’s biggest political detractors are fully engrossed in the excitement of another edition of the World Cup Finals. Russia’s biggest political detractors are fully engrossed in the excitement of another edition of the World Cup Finals.
As far as the contenders for this tournament go, it is fair to assume that the usual suspects will prevail at the business end of the tournament. Eight nations boast the distinction of winning the World Cup. Brazil has five titles, Germany and Italy have four each, Argentina and Uruguay with two and England, France and Spain have single triumphs.
With Italy the only past champion set to miss the tournament in Russia, it is safe to say that one of the other seven former champions will win another World Cup title. The bookmakers have installed perennial powerhouses Germany and Brazil as favourites with Spain, France and Argentina highly fancied and the likes of Belgium and England earning the status of possible spoilers. Interestingly, only one non-European team has won the World Cup on European soil and that was the Brazil team of 1958 with a seventeen-year-old named Edson Arantes do Nascimento opularly known as “Pele”, scoring twice in the final against the home team Sweden. That was sixty years and fourteen World Cup tournaments ago.
If history and tradition remain relevant factors in World Cup football, then European giants such as Germany, Spain and France should start with at least a psychological edge heading into Russia. The truth be told defending champions Germany will be hard to beat. The majority of the title-winning squad from 2014 will return and so will their shrewd champion coach Joachim Loew. This German team has real depth, quality and experience as well a storied history of playing their best football in big tournaments when it matters most, which is the prescribed recipe for World Cup
success.
To Read More: Purchase your copy of Volume 9 #8 May-June 2018
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It is absolutely unbelievable that four years have elapsed since I was walking the streets of Rio de Janeiro and strolling along the world-famous Copacabana beach with tens of thousands of passionate Brazilian football fans and thousands of visitors as we all collectively paid homage to the greatest show on earth unfolding at the spiritual home of the beautiful game.
Brazil 2014 now represents the past, as Russia 2018 beckons. As the momentum builds and expectations rise. The advent of the World Cup finals in Russia in and of itself remains politically irritating to some members of the international community, but such is the power of the people’s game, that even Russia’s biggest political detractors are fully engrossed in the excitement of another edition of the World Cup Finals. Russia’s biggest political detractors are fully engrossed in the excitement of another edition of the World Cup Finals.
As far as the contenders for this tournament go, it is fair to assume that the usual suspects will prevail at the business end of the tournament. Eight nations boast the distinction of winning the World Cup. Brazil has five titles, Germany and Italy have four each, Argentina and Uruguay with two and England, France and Spain have single triumphs.
With Italy the only past champion set to miss the tournament in Russia, it is safe to say that one of the other seven former champions will win another World Cup title. The bookmakers have installed perennial powerhouses Germany and Brazil as favourites with Spain, France and Argentina highly fancied and the likes of Belgium and England earning the status of possible spoilers. Interestingly, only one non-European team has won the World Cup on European soil and that was the Brazil team of 1958 with a seventeen-year-old named Edson Arantes do Nascimento opularly known as “Pele”, scoring twice in the final against the home team Sweden. That was sixty years and fourteen World Cup tournaments ago.
If history and tradition remain relevant factors in World Cup football, then European giants such as Germany, Spain and France should start with at least a psychological edge heading into Russia. The truth be told defending champions Germany will be hard to beat. The majority of the title-winning squad from 2014 will return and so will their shrewd champion coach Joachim Loew. This German team has real depth, quality and experience as well a storied history of playing their best football in big tournaments when it matters most, which is the prescribed recipe for World Cup
success.
To Read More: Purchase your copy of Volume 9 #8 May-June 2018
Share this post: