support: none of them
would be cool if they won the WC: Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil
who do I think is winning it: France or England (whichever one of these wins the direct match between them in the round of 32 or 16, whenever they meet I'm not sure when)
they give vibes of toughness and hard to read-ability sorta... And just like France, they are freaking stacked too... and this time they also have a good manager, so it should theoretically be their WC.
Now, if they DO meet France along the way like it's supposed to happen in their bracket I see France having 55% chance of beating England, so it comes down to luck. But if they do eliminate France I think no one else will stand in their way, not even the mighty Argentina with their star dwarf...
I could see Brazil coming outta nowhere to pull an upset, though. Just based on their pedigree and luck alone, if not also for the fact that they have Ancelotti as the manager, which is something that Brazil have lacked in the last 20 years IMO...
And to all of those haters who spew nonsense like "Morocco wins the WC, or Columbia does this and that, or this is Portugal's year because they're stacked, etc..." I have a few things to tell you:
1. NOBODY ever wins the WC that doesn't mean 2 crucial rules:
- roster depth
- WC experience + mental toughness + winner mentality
Columbia only meets half of rule #2, Morocco the same, Portugal might tick all of these checkboxes, but I think they're still lacking winner mentality and a decent manager (Martinez is nothing more than Penaldo's whore, whatever CR9 says the coach must conform to, or else...)
If they do get a bit of luck, though (in terms of bracket, refereeing, injuries, etc.) then yeah, I can see them winning the WC, they do have a roster that's a bit better than in the previous decades. But WCs are not won based on rosters alone, luck and mental toughness are also required.
And speaking of mental toughness, if there's one team that has this that are not previous WC winners are Croatia. These guys (despite not being my favorite national teams in general) I feel like they've been through Hell and back several times in the last WCs, so they've acquired all of the needed experience to finally win it.
But again, it comes down to what luck they have, and whether or not the stars align for them to win it. Personally, I feel like they're ready (roster-wise, mentality-wise, and winning attitude-wise) to finally win it, but they'll need a bit of luck with the brackets and to knock out a few giants that are most likely to meet in their way to the final.
I feel like if they meet Brazil or Argentina again Croatia will lose to either of these teams, but if they meet the Dutch, the Germans, the Brits or even France or Spain I think Croatia will win. So yeah, they need to get a bit of luck here and there and - if that happens - I feel like this is the only national team that can break into the exclusive top of WC winners (I think only 8 nations have won the WC so far, so Croatia would be the 9th should that happen)
Another team that I feel have a decent chance are Belgium. Again, I'm not particularly fond of Belgians (generally speaking), but I feel like they've also accumulated enough experience and failures to be able to make the mental hop that's required to win it all. It's just that their manager (Rudi Garcia) doesn't give me confidence with his obsession with some players (CdK, Castagne, or Riskin for example. I don't understand why Lukebakio or Salamaekers never start on the RW position, these guys are good footballers, I would start these instead of Doku to be honest, I never liked Doku too much, he can only dribble, but otherwise he has no precision, no efficiency, no vision, NOTHING! Why everyone is head over heels in love with this prick is beyond me...)
So yeah, if Rudi Garcia can get to his senses and put the best starting XI on the pitch in every game (and if Belgium do have a bit of luck in terms of bracket, injuries, etc..) then I can see them or Croatia being the favorites of all tier 2 teams at winning the WC...
But besides Belgium or Croatia (or Portugal based on what I explained above), I think that otherwise this WC will be won again by a previous winner, and my favorites at the moment are:
France
England
Argentina
Brazil
waiting 1 week between matches is no big deal since there are 48 teams at this WC.
In previous WCs we would get 3-4 matches per day, this time we get 4-6 matches per day, which means we still have a ton of games each day despite of the 1 week long waiting times, so I don't see this as a negative...
The other things that you've mentioned are valid and I fully agree with them
Bronze Star
