THE FAVORITES, THE DARK HORSES AND THE UNDER DOGS OF 2014 FIFA WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL

The world cup is full of surprises, no doubt. You can’t say for sure what’s going to happen. Every match day have its own peculiarity, but that’s the beauty of the game – its unpredictability! Many factors come to inter play to change the course of most games and shatter all predictions and all expectations.

Well, not as though its something that can’t be envisaged. Football pundits or even ordinary fan who follow the game closely could draw a simple linear graph and stake his whole life on it, that certain teams are likely to win 2014 world cup. The pattern is all there for you to see.

Since 1930, when the world cup began, only nine countries had won the tournament and the trophy shared between South American and European continent for the past eighty-four years.

Intelligent reports such as FIFA World Ranking can give you an idea of what to expect during the mundial. Moreover, if you have records of each country’s performances over the past six months or so, then you could make some extrapolations of the countries that are likely to win 2014 world cup.

Most football experts consider the quality of individual players in a team and how they had competed in top flight clubs in the most recent UEFA Champions league or Europa cup. These are some of the factors we considered while voting the favorites, the dark horses and the underdogs.

Looking at some or all of the variables, the favorites are countries seen as most likely to 2014 world cup in Brazil.

Spain won the 2010 edition in South Africa and are still favored to win in Brazil. The reason being that 80% of their players competed majorly in the recent UEFA Champions league and two Spanish sides – Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid played in the finals. The country possess one of the best around players and perhaps, the most in form mask man.

Then Brazil, the host country and current champions of Confederations cup, is the second team favored to win 2014 World cup. Let’s see the list of the favorites:

The Favorites

Spain 720/ 1000 Points
Brazil 550/ 1000 Points
Argentina 530/ 1000 Points
Germany 500/ 1000 Points
Uruguay 410/ 1000 Points
Italy 400/ 1000 Points
Portugal 320/ 1000 Points
Netherlands 280/ 1000 Points

The Dark Horses are countries that have the capacity to spring up surprises if competition goes well for them. They are regarded as outsiders that could also win the mundial - Belgium, Columbia, England, top countries in this category.

Belgium particularly, is the team to beat! The Belgians currently has crop of wonderful players, which is usually described as the golden generation - a very compact team that plays an enterprising football and has had some extraordinary run in past one year or so.

Vincent Kompany, the Belgian and Manchester city captain reckons that the togetherness of the team, great attitude and positive believe in themselves to win 2014 world cup could work for them in Brazil.

The Dark Horses

Belgium 890/ 1000 Points
Columbia 682/ 1000 Points
England 600/ 1000 Points
USA 600/ 1000 Points
Russia 580/ 1000 Points
Cote d’Ivoire 490/ 1000 Points
France 420/ 1000 Points
Croatia 350/ 1000 Points
Ghana 300/ 1000 Points
Greece 250/ 1000 Points

We all know is not every country that can win the world cup. Some countries just come to make up the numbers. These countries are regarded as underdogs of the mundial.

Surprisingly, the current African Champions, Nigeria, are regarded as one of the underdogs. Nigeria is currently placed 44^th in FIFA World Ranking and the performances of the team recently haven’t been that impressive. Again, most of the Nigerian boys are infringe players in some European clubs and may not possess such capacity to compete favorably in Brazil.

The Under Dogs