2022 FIFA World Cup - Qatar, November 21-December 18

[Lechasseur]

My very early group stage predictions, will have a definitive prediction much nearer to the World Cup once definitive squads and all are announced (I doubt my predictions will change too much though):

A
Qatar 4
Ecuador 3
Senegal 2
Netherlands 1

B
England 1
Iran 4
USA 2
Wales 3

C
Argentina 1
Saudi Arabia 4
Mexico 3
Poland 2

D
France 1
Australia 3
Denmark 2
Tunisia 4

E
Spain 2
Costa Rica 3
Germany 1
Japan 4

F
Belgium 1
Canada 3
Morocco 4
Croatia 2

G
Brazil 1
Serbia 3
Switzerland 2
Cameroon 4

H
Portugal 1
Ghana 3
Uruguay 2
South Korea 4

[Lechasseur]

Also both odd and great to see that Wales have finally qualified for a World Cup

[Lechasseur]

And my very premature knockout stage predictions (obviously subject to change):

Second Round:
Netherlands vs USA
Argentina vs Denmark
Germany vs Croatia
Brazil vs Uruguay
England vs Senegal
France vs Poland
Belgium vs Spain
Portugal vs Switzerland

Quarter Finals:
Netherlands vs Argentina
Germany vs Brazil
England vs France
Belgium vs Portugal

Semi Finals:
Argentina vs Brazil
France vs Belgium

Match for Third Place:
Argentina vs Belgium

Final:
Brazil vs France

[Lechasseur]

And my very premature knockout stage predictions (obviously subject to change):

Second Round:
Netherlands vs USA
Argentina vs Denmark
Germany vs Croatia
Brazil vs Uruguay
England vs Senegal
France vs Poland
Belgium vs Spain
Portugal vs Switzerland

Quarter Finals:
Netherlands vs Argentina
Germany vs Brazil
England vs France
Belgium vs Portugal

Semi Finals:
Argentina vs Brazil
France vs Belgium

Match for Third Place:
Argentina vs Belgium

Final:
Brazil vs France

I can't see how we would get fourth place. Our golden generation is over. Many players aren't in great shape and especially defensively we're doing horrible, lacking some pace and only having 3 players. Someone like Jonathan David (Canada) is gonna laugh with our flank players. I think 2022 will be the realization that we're done being a top tier team or even sub top tier team.

Perhaps with some luck we survive group stage, but we're gonna likely face a strong competitor in the second round and i don't see how we can win from Spain or Germany. And even like a team with Japan we're gonna have trouble.

Hazard is done. Lukaku misses confidence. We don't have great subs in many positions and our defence is way too weak. We miss flair. We miss the ability to change strategy and tactics. It's not going to be us.

I agree the Golden Generation is over. Maybe switch Belgium with Portugal. But Belgium simply has the weakest branch of the draw. I can't see Canada or some country like that making the semi finals.

Really I feel the only good teams now are France, Brazil and Argentina. I feel this will be a very underwhelming World Cup and probably the worst won in my lifetime.

[Lechasseur]

Brazil defeats Germany

I've traditionally rated Germany quite well (like as far as I've been following football myself, which is like 16-17 years now), and Brazil's quite low, but I do think this is the first time in like 20 years that Brazil CLEARLY has a better team than Germany.

Brazil for me are favourites or joint favourites to win the World Cup this year, while I don't see Germany getting past the quarter finals.

I'd say Germany were similar to Brazil in terms of quality in 2006, Germany was clearly a league above Brazil in 2010-2018 (2018's failure was due to unrest in the dressing room, not due to lack of talent), but now Brazil are clearly the better team again. For the first time since 2002 imo.

And for the record, I've predicted the last 3 World Cup winners correctly along with 2 of the 3 losing finalists (I only got 2018 wrong where I thought Germany would lose to France instead of Croatia).

[Lechasseur]

My final prediction for the World Cup Group Stage:

Group A:
1. Netherlands
2. Ecuador
3. Senegal
4. Qatar

Group B:
1. England
2. USA
3. Wales
4. Iran

Group C:
1. Argentina
2. Poland
3. Mexico
4. Saudi Arabia

Group D:
1. France
2. Denmark
3. Australia
4. Tunisia

Group E:
1. Germany
2. Spain
3. Japan
4. Costa Rica

Group F:
1. Belgium
2. Croatia
3. Morocco
4. Canada

Group G:
1. Brazil
2. Switzerland
3. Serbia
4. Cameroon

Group H:
1. Portugal
2. Uruguay
3. Ghana
4. South Korea

[Lechasseur]

My final prediction for the World Cup Knockout Stage:

Second Round:
Netherlands vs USA
Argentina vs Denmark
Germany vs Croatia
Brazil vs Uruguay
England vs Ecuador
France vs Poland
Belgium vs Spain
Portugal vs Serbia

Quarter Finals:
Netherlands vs Argentina
Germany vs Brazil
England vs France
Belgium vs Portugal

Semi Finals:
Argentina vs Brazil
France vs Portugal

Match for Third Place:
Argentina vs Portugal

Final:
Brazil vs France

[Lechasseur]

For the winner, imo it will be one of Brazil, Argentina and France (my gut went with Brazil). I really can't see past those three teams.

[Lechasseur]

I will be watching the World Cup to see how far US men go in soccer.

American men in general don't care for soccer, looking at the way American sports personalities like Mike Francesa, Craig Carton, etc. have been making fun of the sport.

Look at how US women's soccer gets made fun of.

American men like football, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR.

Shows how exceptional America is, because we ARE different than the world.

Like how baseball is the Dominican Republic's sport, hockey is Canada's sport, soccer is the rest of the world's sport.

When you have rightwingers like Alexi Lalas pushing for his fellow rightwingers to get into the sport, shows how far US men's soccer has to go..

Baseball is the leading sport in a hell of a lot more than just the Dominican Republic. Ice hockey is the leading sport in Finland and Latvia (maybe Belarus?) and basketball is the #1 sport in Lithuania and the Philippines (lol). Australia and Ireland have both indigenous sports and English sports. And South Africa has the racial divide that supports multiple sports. America is hardly exceptional.

Not to mention the US is actually a huge market for watching soccer. It's just playing professionally that is not on the radar.

I honestly think a Big part of that is because the MLS isn't the best league in the World, and Americans dont like the Idea of having to leave the country in order to play at the top level and top pay.

And MLS pay is very low compared to salaries in American major league sports.

[Lechasseur]

Do you know the indirect motive for the Brazilian soccer jersey being yellow?
Well, it's the color of the House of Habsburg
Let me explain: the color yellow was choosen in 1953, because of the color of yellow losangle in the Brazilian national flag.
The rectangle in the flag is green because it's the color of the House of Brangança, where emperor Pedro I (1822-1831) belongs, and the losangle is yellow because it's the color of the House of Habsburg, where consorte empress, the Austrian Leopoldina, Pedro's wife, belongs.

Austria played in the World Cup last time in 1998. Since the austrians can't see their national team in the world cup, they might support the Brazilian national team, because it carries something from Austria in the jersey.

I did not know that, but that's actually really interesting.

[Lechasseur]

Literally none of the England team except maybe Trippier could make the Brazil starting XI, and only a few would even make the bench.

This isn't how you spell Bellingham.

Otherwise fully agreed. England are always among the most overrated squads.

Oh absolutely

England aren't going past the quarter finals, and I just laughed when I was watching on Sky Sports all these Premier League Managers talking about England winning the World Cup.

Like this team is worse than the one 4 years ago, if they couldn't get past the semifinals in 2018 there was no reason for them to do so this year.

Really I can only see Brazil or France winning this World Cup (still thinking Brazil will win).

[Lechasseur]

I extend my congratulations to Argentinia. Usually I don't watch much soccer, but had a chance this time around. I'm just glad I didn't prefer a team, so it was less nervous after this specific match. For sure one of the most interesting ones I've ever seen.

That said, I don't really like deciding matches by penalty shots. Always feels that the result more depends on luck than anything else.

Do you know how draws were decided prior to the (German) invention of penalty shootouts?

PS: The winning country is called Argentina in English.

No idea at international level, but at anyrate in English club football, the match would have to be replayed at a later date

I think penalty shootouts, while not ideal, are still better than a replay or a draw (as in winner gets picked randomly)