We previously compared the TV viewership, revenue and prize money of the World Cup and the Super Bowl, and the World Cup had the clear advantage across the board. Although a closer contest, the World Cup vs Champions League analysis yields a similar result. The World Cup can't be topped.
The usual South American suspects are dominating all the headlines so far this World Cup. How far will Neymar take Brazil? Are Lionel Messi and Argentina finally on form after squeaking through to the Round of 16? Even Colombia and its exciting play through Fernando Quintero and Falcao is garnering attention. However, lost in the chatter of those South American squads is a very exciting and solid Uruguay World Cup squad.
Now that the group stage is over, everyone’s focus is beginning to shift toward the action of the Round of 16. But before that begins, let’s take a look at who performed the best for their countries in the group stages. Some put their nation on their backs, and others played key roles for their country without getting on the scoresheet or getting all the plaudits. Without further ado, here’s the group stage World Cup dream team of the 2018 World Cup! As always, a simple 4-4-2 formation is how we are going to form this team.
Adidas just released a new World Cup ball for the knockout stages of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The new ball is called the Telstar Mechta and features plenty of red.
Telstar Mechta, the official match ball for the 2018 @FIFAWorldCup Knockouts. pic.twitter.com/ZMDAww5UQt
Jose Mourinho is world-renowned for his managerial prowess, but before the World Cup started, he had a go at predicting which teams would make it out of the group stages.
Truth be told, he threw up a number of surprises. But can we expect anything less than that from the Special One? First, let’s revisit his predictions in this video.
GROUP A: Uruguay (1st), Russia (2nd)
When the groups were announced for the 2018 World Cup, people would have bet the house on Germany to make it into the knockout rounds in a group alongside Mexico, Sweden and South Korea. But if you believe in superstitions, then you would have seen Germany crashing out of the group stages, as the last three European World Cup winners before them had the same fate.
Instead, Sweden finished at the top of Group F. But, how did a team that didn’t have much expectation from the public achieve what many thought was highly unlikely?
Through two weeks of scintillating soccer we’ve weeded out the pretenders (seeya, Germany) and kept the contenders (hello, Croatia). Now is when it gets really fun — when every match is do or die, win or go home. So it’s time to go over some more prognostications. These are our World Cup Round of 16 predictions.
We are now done with the group stage of the 2018 World Cup and — aside from Thursday’s matches — it’s been an absolute treat. The tournament has thrilled, enraged, inspired and, most of all, confounded Fox World Cup announcers.
Despite the absence of the United States, the 2018 World Cup has been as engaging as any in recent memory. We didn’t just have one Landon Donovan-against-Algeria moment; we had three groups decided at the death.