So, I guess it's time for a thread about this. Who will you be rooting for? What are your expectations?

Obviously I'll be rooting for Portugal, but even though we won Euro 2016 I don't think we're exactly favourites. Still, I think we have good chances of doing a good job. If we don't win it, I'd like to see Germany lift the cup. How about you?

As usual Scotland haven't qualified, so probably rooting for Iceland. Would also quite like Germany to win again, but as long as England lose I'm happy

I'll actually be in Iceland during the world cup so yeah, stand with the locals.

I'm obviously rooting for Germany. However, I predict France to win the title, with Spain finishing in second position, Poland in third and Germany in fourth.

Here are some more detailed predictions I have done so far:

Group A: http://kluseba.eklablog.com/2018-fifa-w ... a143131456

Group B: http://kluseba.eklablog.com/2018-fifa-w ... a144465832

Group C: http://kluseba.eklablog.com/2018-fifa-w ... a144510408

Group D: http://kluseba.eklablog.com/2018-fifa-w ... a144576384

Group E: http://kluseba.eklablog.com/2018-fifa-w ... a144870912

Predictions of the other three groups will be following shortly.

I'm also excited that the tournament will be taking place in Russia because it's a beautiful country.

No hope in Brazil?

i hope iceland will do well but usually during the tournament itself a team will catch my fancy for some reason. Hoping for some good underdog upsets ofcourse and hopefully it will be like the last WC not like the last EC.

I support Russia, but I agree too that this will be France’s year. So after we get eleminated, I will definitely support France.

When I was in grade school, we did some classroom exercise to help us with geography and since it was 1998, we used the World Cup for the exercise. Everybody was assigned a country, I was assigned Argentina.

Therefore, for a few weeks every four years, I am a die hard Argentina supporter, because I know fuck all about soccer but dammit if I don't just love huge tournaments.

Sadly, our national team is doing really bad (even Messi admited it), but I'm still rooting for it! Anything can happen in a World Cup. The match against Iceland is going to be really interesting, for sure.

Regarding the winner, I think Spain is a really strong candidate; then, of course there is Germany, and Brazil of course. France seems to be a new favourite due to its inclusion of lots of young players: I'm eager to see how they will perform during the matches.

I'm obviously going for Australia but I give us no hope of qualifying beyond the group stages. We aren't very good at soccer (sorry, football [sorry, futbal]), and we tend to be lucky to draw against other teams. We are in the pool with France, Denmark, and Peru, all of whom should thoroughly destroy us.

I am looking forward to governmental-organized hooligan violence, especially when Russia will lose (which will be soon).

Why do you even wish that? In the Burzum topic, you were complaining about chaos in Europe but it seems you actually appreciate confrontational situations and troubles. I really hope we have it under control and no violence happens.

France looked indestructible after their game against Italy, but after the 1-1 against USA, I don't know... Fekir was impressive but not his other team mates. I would start paying attention to Belgium too. They have some great players and could create surprising results.

It's Germany for me, like it has always been. Also waiting for some good "underdog" to flag on. Maybe Iceland this time?

The US CHOKING and not even qualifying has really put a damper on my ability to care.

I have been looking forward to this since the last, but man did that US team ever shit the bed.

I wonder who the Italians, the Dutch and the Americans(ye right, they won't even pretend to care about 'sucker' this time) will pull for this WC.

...Ok that was mean.

Portugal as the European champions have the responsibility and duty of at least trying. Not asking them to win the whole thing, but first of all, let's pass the group stage, shall we? Even if Morocco and Iran might have better teams than we know, I'm sure Portugal on a good day can beat them.

If we qualify to the next round, we'll get either Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Uruguay. I dunno how these teams are doing these days, but Uruguay is prolly complicated since it's a South American team.

If we make it to the QFs it's likely we'll get France or Germany... that or upsets happen and we face a team like Mexico, Peru or South Korea.

If Portugal doesn't win this thing, then I'd be fine wit hit going to a nation that has never won it before, or maybe a nation that hasn't won it in years like Argentina. Brazil, Germany, France, Spain and England? Fuck no. Ideally, if Portugal doesn't win it, I'd want maybe Japan to win it... but unless their Captain Tsubasa shirts materialise then nah, it won't happen.

I'll fully admit that I'm an American that does not watch a lot of Football (I hardly watch any American Football), but The World Cup is exciting for me to have all these players play for their countries on teams with players they don't normally play with. Unfortunately, without America I'm really finding myself without much of a team to root for. My knowledge is so little that without a general team like the country I live in to root for I'm lost.

I wasn't referring to you. It was more of a joke and a diss at Americans I often see online claiming to hate our type of football but then suddenly act like they like the sport during the WC when their team wins a game... and then go back to saying "soccer sucks. needs better rules" when USA eventually gets knocked out from the World Cup. It's hypocritically annoying. I couldn't care less about basketball or handball myself, and if one say Portugal suddenly won Eurobasket or Euro Handball, I'd still not care.

But no, I wasn't referring to someone like you, who obviously doesn't have a problem with football and just likes the big tournament feel of the WC. Your stand is fine and perfectly understandable, no worries.

I feel the same way. It also gets a lot more fun if you happen to be visiting a country where it's popular and watch it on a big screen surrounded by excited fans. I cringe at the childish shirt-pulling and that sort of thing, but enjoy watching it otherwise.

I probably won't watch many games as they're on early morning here, but I'll be rooting for Argentina as that's where my brother-in-law is from. He also has Swiss heritage as a backup plan. My own English heritage seems too many generations removed.

What's the best African country nowadays? We should move Finland to Asia, maybe then we would have a change to get into this tournament. Or maybe not...

Currently the best African team is Morocco. They did not take any goals when qualifying.

I wouldn't be so sure that Morocco is the best African team, looking at the squads.

Anyway, Aleksandr Golovin is a very promising player undoubtedly, as shown by his performance in the opening game. But man were Saudi Arabia terrible, especially their passing. They will certainly end up at the bottom of group A. The only bad thing for Russia from today's game is that Alan Dzagoev got injured in a way that it seems likely that he'll miss the rest of the cup. Yes, Denis Cheryshev replaced him and scored twice, but still, Dzagoev was expected to be a key player for them.

Also, this VAR thing have made the linesmen less willing to call offside, since they now are instructed to not do so if there is any doubt. But in the first half there was a 100%, easily observed offside which the linesman didn't call. It looked really ridiculous.

First game won easily. This could be our year after all hehe. I want to believe.

FIFA announced that Mexico, the USA and Canada will co-host the 2026 World Cup Mexico and probably the Americans would have qualified anyway, but Canada is grateful for the help. Now we have eight years to become non-terrible!

If Russia can put 5 past Saudi Arabia then Uruguay may very well get into double figures. The arabs were godawful but it was still a really fun match to watch. God, I love the World Cup!

Tomorrow should be a cracker too. Salah Vs Suarez. Then Spain Vs Portugal which would be a must-watch anyway but now it's going to be very interesting to see how the Spaniards respond to the managerial chaos.

Always rooting for Trinidad and Tobago.

YES! Ronaldo turned god mode on. But we have to improve a lot, I can't believe we had the advantage and lost it like that. We couldn't play possession football as we should with these players and we should've scored in on of our counter-attacks but Guedes was very uninspired today. Spain outplayed us in every way but it seems our luck from 2016 hasn't disappeared. Also, terrible refereeing in that match, especially on that Costa vs Pepe dispute.

Overall best match so far, amazing goals by Nacho and Ronaldo (freekick) and lots of emotion and uncertainty. Just your typical Iberian clash

And Iran now are leading the group. People expected Morocco to have a word and Iran to be the punching bag of the group but lo and behold.

Unexpectedly solid victory by the Russians yesterday that truly started the tournament on a high note.

I dozed off during the match between Egypt and Uruguay but from what I saw, Uruguay deserved the win.

The match between Morocco and Iran was one of the worst matches I have ever watched: too many fouls and interruptions, players lacking skills and a completely ridiculous own goal as cherry atop the cake - I guess that's karma for not nominating Sofiane Boufal.

The match between Portugal and Spain was however one of the best I have watched in my whole life and it stands for everything that makes soccer the best sport in the world.

The worst World Cup match I remember was Tunisia vs. Belgium in 2002. I woke up early in the morning to watch that crap.

2010 was the worst WC I've ever seen, so it had a lot of stinkers as well. Also the vuvuzelas were awful.

Wait did you expect Saudi Arabia to win?

France beat Australia 2-1.

I thought it would be a bigger flogging. Two penalties to either side in the space of 3 minutes before France kicked what I thought was a really lucky goal. But overall the disparity of quality between the two teams was clear. Australia turned over some cheap ball constantly and it's a miracle it wasn't a larger scoreline against us. Looks like a quick exit coming up.

Round of applause for Iceland, coming from behind to draw 1-1 with Argentina. Messi had a shocker but Iceland defended fantastically, their goalkeeper was man of the match for me.

To put it in perspective, Argentina has a population of 40 million people. Iceland by contrast has only 330,000. Absolutely phenomenal result. Iceland are just so bloody likable aren't they? They truly channel the viking spirit in their attitude and performances. I'd love to see them get through the group.

Man .. bummed. Not going to get to see nearly as many games as last time. I don't have a DVR and this time around I'm employed full time. Made it WAAAAAY easier to follow when I didn't have a job. Now the clients are watching the game when I have to be working. So much unfairness. So much shit is in life.


I had basically the opposite experience. The US team was the thing I disliked most about the last world cup. I was glad when they were eliminated then, and I'm glad they aren't a factor this time.

Haven't seen any of the games. Surprised Perú lost to Denmark, but oh well, I guess they just wasted a lot of chances. A shame Australia couldn't get a draw. I've always liked seeing Australia in World Cups since 2006. I like to see them do well. Dunno why, but I just do. Australia is just one of those "neutral and peaceful/countries" no one seems to dislike/hate. Plus they're not particularly successful in football, so they're not viewed as a threat either.

As for Iceland, well Argentina might have Messi but they're not so strong defensively and Iceland already had a good Euro, so not that surprising.


That is a good marketing slogan, yes. Just like if Japan suddenly became as strong as it is in the Captain Tsubasa anime, people would be raving about their "samurai sprit".


What makes you dislike them, if I may ask? Just curious. If it's because of the whole media thing then I do agree that many American fans are really irritating and I've pointed out ITT before the reasons why, but the actual itself I have no issues with. They seem like just ordinary guys, really.

Thank you for your support. You're right that we're not really successful at football. We probably never will be. But we made France work for the win and if we're competitive in all our matches then that's the best we can really hope for.

Well you've been to every World Cup since 2006, so clearly you've improved a bit since then. Also, moving to AFC was a good decision. OFC was holding you down. The best you can achieve is becoming a regional power in Asia. You already won an Asian Cup, at least.

We have, so that is a good sign, despite the fact we haven't made it past the group stages in all except for one (if I remember correctly). Winning an Asian Cup was good. So if we can continue on this upward slope, we can finally be more competitive in the world. Still, being as good as countries like Germany, Spain, Brazil, England, Portugal, Argentina...that'll probably take a generational change.

Australia is a bit too isolated from countries that are good at football and is limited by its confederation. Same reason large powerful countries like Japan and USA have trouble catching up no matter how much money and godo infrastructures they have. Football as we know started out as a European and South American thing, therefore that's where most of the school of football is as its culture. Not to mention football isn't the number 1 sport in countries like Australia and USA and I don't see it becoming number 1 in those countries any time soon, especially not in USA. Also, as large as Australia is, it has a low population, to its statistically unlikely for a super generation to pop out for you guys.

You might luck out one day to have a good generation that mostly plays abroad and develops their skills there, but your football clubs will never play in UEFA for obvious reasons. The best players of Africa, Asia, North America and even South America will all go to Europe eventually, unless one day European football absolutely collapses or something. One never knows what might happen in 50 years from now.

I'm rotting for Sweden since I'm Swedish. I think our team work is the best it has been in years. We miss our best player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but I think that is a good thing for the team. My reasoning is that he took over the team to much and the rest of the team tended to rely on him to make things happen. Now we have gone back to what Sweden always had as a strong point - a team that is more than its individual parts.

First World Cup we've qualified for in a while. Do we make it out of the group? I dunno, it's gonna be tough with South Korea, Germany and Mexico. I don't think we're out of a chance. After all we did manage to make sure neither the Netherlands or Italy made it to the world cup at all this year. But it won't be easy.

I have a good eye towards England as well since I used to live there. They don't have a particularly strong team but perhaps an easier group than Sweden does (Tunisia, Panama and Belgium). I see them moving on from the group stage but every win from there on is quite uncertain.