Group D is in my opinion the most balanced group for the simple reason that I don’t see Argentina to go very far this time. Argentina is looking at a cliff with a steep drop right now. Messi already quit once on the team and he will definitely retire from the national team after this WC. Argentina barely made the qualification and might end up where they were prior to 1978 – in the LaLa Land of soccer. This is their last shot for a while and I don’t think they are strong enough. They will struggle mightily to survive this group.
The US soccer fans will be introduced to Iceland who became soccer’s new darling team during the 2016 Euro. It will be hard for them to recapture that moment of glory from 2016 especially since the soccer world is now forewarned. I still give them a fair chance in the group stage.
Croatia feels like they have a new “golden generation” on hand who can recapture the glory of their previous golden generation which made it to the Quarters in the 1996 Euro and 3rd place in the 1998 WC which included a win over heavily favorite Germany. A neat little tid bid: Iceland and Croatia emerged from the same qualifying group which Iceland won and sent Croatia to the playoffs.
Since 1994 Nigeria has become a consistent participant on the World Cup stage. They sure have the most exciting outfits.
In summary this group could be all tied at the end and the tiebreaker scenarios will determine the survivors. Right now I give the slight edge to Argentina followed by Croatia. But like I said it could be easily Nigeria and Iceland.
| Argentina |
| Croatia |
| Nigeria |
| Iceland |
| prediction to advance in bold |
Group E should be dominated by Brazil – on paper. I just have a huge problem gauging them outside Neymar. They took advantage from a floundering South America competition which I believe is in a little drop right now. How good can/will Brazil be? Personally I think they are lacking most top European teams but out of respect for South America I can see them going to the final four.
Costa Rica will try to copy the magic from 2014 which carried them to the Quarter Finals by winning the group and disposing of England and Italy and only faltering to the Netherlands on PK in the Quarter Finals. But Italy is not here and Switzerland is not England.
Switzerland is a team you always expect to do better but then they freeze up. 10 players who play in Germany and a tremendous qualifier and maybe, just maybe they can make that jump this time. They may not be strong enough yet to beat Brazil but I give them second place (sorry Costa Rica, not this time).
| Brazil |
| Switzerland |
| Costa Rica |
| Serbia |
| prediction to advance in bold |
Group F belongs to Germany. One of the reasons why it is so hard to repeat as WC Champion is that most winners are going through a transition in the next WC. Germany already completed that transition. Arriving with 8 players who were on the 2014 winning squad and all WC new bees already had action in the qualifier and last year’s Confed Cup in which Germany played with a B-Team and won. Next to Spain Germany has the deepest squad. The team’s slogan is “The Best Never Rest” and Coach Loew’s philosophy is “we are not going to defend our title. We are going to win it.”
Loew’s contract is already extended through 2022 so he can continue to manifest Germany as the ultimate WC team. There are really only a couple of tight areas: scoring in tournaments which cost them the Euro 2016. Germany tends to fascinate itself with combination soccer that sometimes they forget to score or they want to carry the ball on a silver platter into the net. If the qualifiers are any indication they learned from their past mistakes.
The other question is if the Erdogan affair will have any effect on the team’s psyche. Behind Germany I see Mexico and Sweden on an even footing. Both with completely different styles I would give the cool defensive Scandinavian style the notch over Mexican passion at this point. If Mexico can overcome Sweden I could see them go far, maybe even knocking on the door to the Semis.
For South Korea the WC will end after 3 games.
| Germany |
| Sweden |
| Mexico |
| South Korea |
| prediction to advance in bold |
Next up: Group G and H and the projected "Round of 16" pairings.
