Thread is dead but imma revive it. I made some predictions early this year in the other thread so let's see how wrong I was:
Early, non-official group predictions by someone who has been paying zero attention to national team football lately (or football for that matter) but knows world cup history decently:
A
Group A is always fun because it's the host country's group, who sucks more often than not so there isn't a clear favorite. This time there's Netherlands, though. That's world cup's perpetual "should have won but never did" country. Sometimes they are great, sometimes they just suck. But the competion is kinda bad. Ecuador fights Senegal for 2nd place, and I'll bet Ecuador for SA bias. Qatar's objective is to suffer a single digit number of goals overall.
Netherlands > Ecuador
Close enough. 2nd place was a toss up and I picked the wrong side. Africa has been more impressive this WC than I expected, and South America has been underwhelming;
B
England is the most consistent country ever: they always finish 1st place in ther group then lose at either final 16 or final 8. This is is no exception. Iran is just happy to be here. Gonna pick European Playoffs for second place because USA being bad at football is a meme that needs to stay alive.
England > European Playoff Winner
The playoff winner would turn out to be Wales, and that's not a country you bet on, tbh (why does UK get four teams? that's weird. And two in the same group so they basically played against themselves!). There will be time to kindle the flame of the USA soccer meme, but it wasn't this time.
C
Argentina > Mexico > rest. Next. Ok Argentina is so dramatic I could see them managing to get behind Mexico, but they probably won't.
Argentina > Mexico
I correctly predicted Argentina would be dramatic and struggle. I did not predict they would struggle against Arabia (LOL), nor that Mexico would be that bad, and that Poland would sneak into second place by the end.
D
France. Then there are some playoff countries but none of them seem impressive. Denmark isn't impressive either, but they are like a bargain bin England in that they always finish somewhere near the middle so I'll pick them. Yes I'm Europe-biased but let's be honest Europe has ruled this sport for a while.
France > Denmark
Denmark was crap this year. Australia wasn't great, but was better. Man what a weird WC.
E
What the fuck, FIFA. Germany not heading a group? I don't know if what events transpired to cause this but they probably don't matter, it's Germany, they are as consistent as England but better. But there's Spain. Spain is like Netherlands in that they aren't that good as their fame except they've actually won once. I think I'm gonna go with the German efficiency here. I like Japan and I'm sad they have to wait another 4 years, such a bad draw. Costa Rica (yes, let's not pretend New Zealand even comes here) makes a good fight for 3rd place and might even get it.
Germany > Spain
I should have maybe researched why Germany was not hyped. This WC had a gazillion upsets, and Group E was king, with freaking Japan beating both champions and ending 1st place. The irony is that I correctly guessed Spanish getting 2nd place, though not this way.
F
Belgium is the new sexy underdog of world cups. I'm not sure if that's going to last, but if Spain has taught us anything, there's a good chance it does. Croatia is a mainstay in quarterfinals and beyond. Morocco tries hard but it's probably out of its league. I wasn't aware Canada played football. I guess they probably got told that's a new type of hockey.
Belgium > Croatia
The sexy underdog was just hype. Croatia continues to be the team you should not sleep on. Morocco was not out of its league. Canada learned football is not a new type of hockey, after all.
G
Brazil is here once again to overhype Neymar, overhype results against group phase and final 16 opponents, then either lose at quarterfinals to a B-tier European team (if they're lucky) or run into Germany (if they're not). So what I mean is they will steamroll those poor chaps who landed in group G. 2nd place is a fun race, though.I want to pick an African team but Cameroon isn't the place to start doing that. I don't remember Switzerland ever doing anything, and Serbia is Iugoslavia, I guess. Eh, not really but I need a criterium.
Brazil > Serbia
Brazil's hype seems to be starting to die early than I had predicted. This might actually help it, since Brazil plays better when it has something to prove. We'll see. I'm a fan of Cameroon's goalkeeper now, though. Google his history, this is like the first moment of glory of his entire career.
As for the others, if there is anything left of Yugoslavia, it went to Croatia, not Serbia. Though they did put up a good fight, I guess.
H
The weaksauce group. Meaning it's one of the most fun. Korea isn't that bad but... yeah ok they are. Uruguay is a ghost of an ancient past, but every once in a while they remember they are supposed to be good. Is it finally the time? Probably not. Portugal is ok. Hey, I still need to pick an African country, right? And Ghana is one of the strongest ones so let's be fun and do that.
Ghana > Portugal
Korea was not that bad! Let's see if they can give Brazil a scare or not. Uruguay was good, but its coach was an idiot (I've heard someone say anyone who benches Arrascaeta deserves to lose, he is one of the best players in the Brazilian league). Portugal was ok. Ghana was not the right pick for mandatory African country.