One month. One day. That’s all there is between the final kick of the Premier League season and the Brazil World Cup kick-off in Rio this summer.
It’s one month and one day that, minus the FA Cup and Champions League finals, we’re almost happy to completely wish away. The squads have been announced and with our Panini sticker books edging nearer to completion, it’s time to think about who the movers and shakers will be in this summer’s Brazilian carnival of football.
The Favourites
BRAZIL:
Popular with most bookmakers, there seems to be an air of acceptance that Brazil will be the team to beat this summer. Whilst I’m wary about taking a view to the contrary, I’m not sure it’s quite so clear-cut.
Admittedly, their defence is solid and in Luiz Felipe Scolari they have a manager who’s been there, won it and got the t-shirt (medal). It’s going forward where I have my doubts. Looking at their midfield; Oscar, Hernanes and possibly Willian are the only real ‘centre-of-the-park’ playmakers in Kaká’s absence and, as José Mourinho pointed out, Oscar in particular has been guilty of ‘going missing’ in some of Chelsea’s more recent games. Hernanes isn’t vastly internationally experienced given his age of 28 and Willian, surprisingly, has only five caps to his name. This could be an area where lack of experience shows.
Up top they lack a truly clinical, ‘fat’ Ronaldo-esque frontman and goals will have to come from the half-magic-half-maverick wide pairing of Hulk and Neymar. Both have the potential to dazzle as Neymar Jr showed at the Confederations Cup but they aren’t without their critics.
It remains to be seen whether the Amazonian heat will play into their favour. It certainly could, but I’m just not fully convinced.
The Flops
The Netherlands:
I get the feeling Louis van Gaal would be wise to hurry up and sign on the dotted line at Old Trafford. Famed for an illustrious history of formidable strikers (van Basten, Kluivert, Cruyff, Bergkamp, van Nistelrooy etc.) it’s up-front where the Dutch are in good company once more. In Robin van Persie and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar they have two of the most potent frontmen in world football. Sadly for them, the picture just gets worse and worse as you head backwards through the squad.
Robben, Sneijder and van der Vaart are all, unquestionably, world-beaters on their day but certainly in the case of the latter two; perhaps we should say they ‘were’ world-beaters ‘in’ their day’; both having taken the first step down in their club careers. The remainder of the midfield, and the squad, is littered with ‘so-so’, mid-table Premier League players. It’s hard to see van Gaal’s team having the depth required to make something happen should things not go their way.
With their defence looking about as watertight as a colander, and Spain and the dangerous Chile also in Group B, there’s every chance this summer could be one to forget for the Oranje.
The Dark Horses
FRANCE:
Bear with me, please. I swear I have a case. When Didier Deschamps announced his squad on the 13th of May, most of the social media discussion revolved around his exclusion of Samir Nasri and, to a lesser extent, Gaël Clichy. What wasn’t really picked up on was his reasoning. Deschamps took a brave stance and did what, really, any good international manager should and picked ‘the best squad’, not ‘the 23 best French players’.
In Sagna, Koscielny, Mangala, Varane and Evra he has a defence with a beautiful blend of experience, form, pace and strength and with Hugo Lloris behind them, the French will be harder to break down than many might think.
In midfield they have a solid base with Cabaye and Matuidi and then there’s the genuine talent that is Paul Pogba. Moussa Sissoko’s inclusion is an enigma, but further forward Antoine Griezmann is one of the hottest properties in European football, Ribéry’s talent is proven and in Benzema, Giroud and Rémy the French have a perfect set of strikers. Between them there’s pace, strength, finesse and crucially, with all three, a proven ability to score goals at the highest level.
Combine this squad with a group consisting of Switzerland, Ecuador and Honduras, and a probable last-16 tie against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the offing, and you can see why France could go far in Brazil (just as Brazil did in France 16 years ago).
The Surprise Package
CROATIA:
When I sat down with my sandwich to analyse the 32 squads, it was Niko Kovač’s that leapt out at me. Like France, and possibly more so, this is a squad with a healthy blend of youth and experience that should serve the Croatians well this summer.
Defensively, experience often counts in international tournaments and, considering keeper Stipe Pletikosa, captain Darijo Srna and former Tottenham Hotspur defender Vedran Ćorluka have in excess of 250 caps between them, the Croatians have plenty of it. Allied with the outstanding form of Southampton’s Dejan Lovren, their defence will be difficult to breach.
That said, it was their attack that really commanded my attention. Kranjčar, Olić, Eduardo and Jelavić have seen tournaments come and go and will provide much needed experience in the final third. Supplementing them, the Croatians have a trio of simply outstanding footballers.
First, Ivan Rakitić. A Europa League winner with Sevilla and reportedly soon-to-be subject of some hefty bids from the world’s finest clubs, Rakitić has plenty of international experience and seems to be approaching his peak. Second of the three is the equally experienced and possibly Chelsea-bound Mario Mandžukic, one of Europe’s deadliest finishers.
Completing the ‘Holy Trinity’ is the starlet that is Luka Modrić. Now with more than 70 caps to his name and fully established in Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid team, the little Croatian was described earlier this season as more important to Los Blancos than even Cristiano Ronaldo himself. If that’s anything to go by, Croatia could be set to ruffle some Brazilian carnival feathers (quite literally, they’re in the same group).
The Player
It’s difficult to award a prospective ‘Player-of-the-Tournament’ award without giving consideration to which team will go on to lift the trophy, as the two will probably go hand-in-hand. With that in mind, I don’t think it’s possible to look beyond what is a truly formidable Spanish squad. That’s probably not a surprise to you. What might be surprising to you is my choice of player. Diego Costa? No. Andrés Iniesta? No. Cesc Fàbregas? No. My choice, believe it or not, is Sergio Ramos.
At times, the Real Madrid vice-captain is erratic and his red-card tally bears the scars to prove it, but, to others he illustrates why he truly deserves to be considered one of Europe’s finest defenders and competitors. He’s won this competition before and might well have won the Champions League too by the time España touch-down in Brazil. Nerves are out of the question.
Where Spain, and for that matter, Barcelona, have gone wrong in recent times is their openness defensively. Brazil illustrated just what was there for the taking in their annihilation of the Spanish in the 2013 Confederations Cup final. This is surely the only place where questions will be asked of Vicente del Bosque’s side, their attack being quite remarkable. With that in mind, it could well be a summer continuance of Ramos’ simply scintillating recent form (at both ends of the pitch) that makes all the difference.
Funnily enough, a nickname of the Spanish national team is ‘La Furia Roja’, meaning ‘The Red Fury’. Ramos surely fits that billing down to a tee and it could just be that he walks away with not just a second World Cup winners’ medal but, as Fabio Cannavaro almost did eight years ago, a somewhat unexpected Golden Ball award to sit beside it.
The ‘Papa Bouba Diop’ Award
When you saw the title, I’m sure you wondered what this reference to Portsmouth’s former giant of a defensive midfielder was all about. If you didn’t, congratulations, you clearly know your recent World Cup history.
It was of course Papa Bouba Diop, then of French side Lens, who emerged from footballing obscurity to carry Senegal to worldwide fame in their run to the quarter-finals of the 2002 South Korea & Japan World Cup. It was his goal in the opening game of Group A that eventually catapulted reigning champions France out of the tournament and his two goals against Uruguay that saw the South Americans meet a similar fate, with Senegal progressing to the last-16. After bettering Sweden they were eliminated at the quarter-final stage but anyway, that’s the history. The question at hand is who might have a similarly unexpected impact this time round.
In response, my nominee for the ‘Papa Bouba Diop Award’ is none other than Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa. Kagawa hasn’t played much football and he’s played even less football well. Japan also lie in what is, make no mistake about it, a hideous group. Colombia have climbed the rankings at an astounding pace, Greece always pull something out of the bag at major tournaments and Côte d’Ivoire have some of the biggest names in world football. The task for Kagawa and co. is stark. But, there is always a World Cup shock, and I think Group C is where we might see one.
Defensively the Japanese don’t have much to offer so if they are to mount a charge, it’s their attack that’ll do it. That assumed, this may well be the perfect opportunity for Kagawa to recapture the form that made him one of the world’s hottest properties two seasons ago. With Côte d’Ivoire carrying a lot of older players, Greece not being the side they were a decade ago and Colombia lacking World Cup pedigree, Japan might just have a chance with the pace and guile of their squad.
With the ‘soon-to-be-confirmed’ new Manchester United manager watching on in close proximity, and national pride at stake, Kagawa may just be the orchestrator of a memorable World Cup shock or two.
… and what about England?
Roy Hodgson’s received a lot of praise for selecting a young squad. If I’m honest, I don’t really know what choice he had. If taking Frank Lampard and leaving Ashley Cole and Michael Carrick at home really constitutes actively choosing a young squad, then well done to Roy. England find themselves in a group many find it hard to believe they’ll escape and with that in mind, blooding young talent is surely a wise move.
Speaking of blood, as a Liverpool fan, it’s in mine to feel irrationally optimistic about any new campaign. Sitting here in my England shirt, it’s hard to avoid painting a positive picture. So I won’t avoid it. I think England will progress to the last 16, most probably benefiting from the defensive weaknesses of Luis Suárez’s Uruguay. There, a tie against likely Group C victors Côte d’Ivoire seems most probable and, realistically, that does seem winnable. From that point on, it’s all down to the magic of the World Cup atmosphere to carry Roy’s Three Lions any further. And if there’s one thing you can guarantee from Brazil, it’s that there’ll be one hell of an atmosphere.
Article written by Harrison Packer.
You can follow Harrison on Twitter here: @HPackerSports
The post The Brazil World Cup – A pre-tournament guide for who will be hot, which team might flop and this year’s Papa Bouba Diop appeared first on Fantasy Football News, Advice & Tips from Fantasy Football Pundits.