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).
Pretty much my perception, based just on the vibes of watching. Brazil team was mediocre in 2010, 2014 and 2018 and I didn’t really get the excitement of watching them play. Everyone acted like we were favorites (inside and outside) based on name tradition only.
In 2002 and 2006 (the only other years I followed, those as a kid), I remember being excited to watch the games. Sometimes that culminated in a victory like 2002, sometimes in another Quarters elimination like 2006 (France was really strong that year, finishing 2nd after basically a tie in the finals against Italy), but regardless of result the games were just fun to watch.
I kinda attributed that to the child magic of following these competitions since they’re a novelty, but I do see more people bringing up that Brazil after 2006 lost quality.
I don’t know yet if this year will be a return to form since I haven’t been following that closely, but I see people bringing up that at least it looks like a better team than these few last years. And the CONMEBOL qualifications performance was the best ever, although that doesn’t mean anything for the actual WC. But I will wait for the Group games to say whether I believe this team has real shot of winning or not. In 2014 and 2018 my answer was a clear NO!.
I feel like Brazil, Argentina and France are the favorites this time. Maybe Spain too? But important to remember surprises always happen in these competitions. Would be fun if a team won for their country the 1st Title ever.
