National Teams

Brazilian soccer players are like American basketball players — no matter where in the world there’s a professional soccer team, there’s likely to be a Brazilian playing for it. Brazil players salaries range from the lowest leagues to the highest-paid players in the world.

The best of the thousands of professional Brazilian soccer players make up the Seleção, and the 23 players chosen to represent Brazil’s World Cup team. All are well compensated by their professional clubs, but not all Brazil players salaries are created equally on the 2018 squad. 

Brazil takes on Belgium in the second quarterfinal of the 2018 World Cup at Kazan Arena on Friday, July 6 at 2:00 p.m. ET. The match is a broadcaster’s dream with the likes of Neymar and Philippe Coutinho taking on Romelu Lukaku and Eden Hazard. It’ll be a high-octane affair with the winner moving on to Saint Petersburg to play either France or Uruguay in the semifinals.

We’re still trying to figure out if England is any good or if Sweden is as good as its results suggest. Our World Cup 2018 quarterfinal England vs Sweden prediction for their match on Saturday in Samara takes into account what both teams have and have not accomplished so far, as a team that’s beaten up on some really bad teams will go head-to-head with a team that made it through the Group of Death.

OK, England won a penalty shootout, so we can be done with those forever now, right? No more penalties, no more penalty shootouts. Let’s just see some goals from open play and some gentlemanly behavior out there. Let’s all just agree to that and we’ll enjoy ourselves in the quarterfinals. What’s that? I’m being sent to the Gulag? 

Few could have predicted this matchup in the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Cup before the tournament started, so making a Russia vs Croatia prediction might seem like a fool’s errand. But whoever survives the quarterfinal on Saturday at Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi will deserve its spot in the semifinals against either Sweden or England.

He’s the bowl-cut donning, navy shirt wearing, finger-sniffing mastermind behind Germany’s masterful national team. Joachim Low is also the coach who showed up with an appalling team during this year’s World Cup. Before the World Cup, Low renewed his contract as manager till 2022, but after Germany’s embarrassing way out this year, speculations ran wild about Low’s premature departure. 

It was the outcome England dreaded most: After going out on penalties in ’90, ’98 and ’06, it was penalties again in '18 — this time in the Round of 16 against Colombia. What’s more, after conceding a 92nd minute equalizer to Yerry Mina, you could imagine that English spirits weren’t exactly flying high.

Colombia looked absolutely buried in the 92nd minute of Tuesday's Round of 16 match against England. The Three Lions were only up one, but Colombia looked unable to do anything apart from bitch at American referee Mark Geiger. I had already written a nice little introduction about the blossoming of the Special Relationship on the biggest stage, but then Mateus Uribe forced a corner.

Neymar antics are a controversial subject. 

The question of whether Brazil’s superstar should be punished for his constant feigning, flopping and deceitful attitude leaves no one indifferent.

There are two sides to the story. First, you've got perhaps the most skilled player at dribbling who gets fouled, well, a lot. He is in fact the most fouled player of this World Cup thus far and is therefore considered to be a victim.