Netherlands - USA (The Dutch have the pedigree but USA is producing players now that don't know they're not supposed to win; Netherlands is nice but not that great and they're coming in with the expectations; we'll see; I'll take USA (but obviously because I'm a homer))
Argentina - Australia (I thought this Argentina side might be too long in the tooth to get it done and when they got stung by Saudi Arabia in the opener, it felt like the end was neigh; but they're righted the ship and look pretty damn good again; Australia, on the other hand, is big and tough with not a lot of skill on the ball; I'll take Argentina)
France - Poland (France looks good, Poland looks okay; France has world class talent on the bench, Poland has Lewandowski up front; France is the better team but if they falter and Poland can get the ball forward, this has upset potential; but I'll take France)
England - Senegal (Senegal isn't bad while the English aren't as good as they think they are; this is toss-up, the English probably fancy themselves the favorite but I'm not sure; I'll take Senegal)
Japan - Croatia (Croatia is another team that looks old to me, Japan is sneaky and they just keep working; Croatia should have more talent, but that might doom them; I'll take Japan)
Brazil - South Korea (I like South Korea but they're not Brazil; I'll take Brazil)
Morocco - Spain (Hey, man, Morocco has played well to this point, but they may have just been in a disappointing group; Spain has moments of looking like the old magic, but I feel like they haven't played a complete game yet; I'll take Spain)
Portugal - Switzerland (I think Portugal played above themselves in group, I can see them crashing back to earth at some point; on the other hand, I don't think Switzerland has enough spice to really put in on them; I'll take Spain)
Bottom 16
17) Tunisia (man, they were good, thought they'd advance, kinda surprised they didn't; really solid on both sides)
18) Cameroon (beat Brazil, competed well against weird Euro squads, little more luck and they could've moved on)
19) Ecuador (good scorers, they were dangerous, just got unlucky down the stretch)
20) Germany (fell asleep against Japan, got lucky against Spain, finally busted out at the end of the Costa Rica match; flashes of German-ness but not enough to get it done)
21) Uruguay (still kinda scary up front, almost made it through; didn't love them but they weren't bad; last rodeo for the Suarez-Cavani combo, I presume)
22) Costa Rica (weird run, not a bad team but never got going)
24) Iran (gave away the first match but still played hard for two games; strong turnaround)
25) Mexico (just couldn't score, never seemed dangerous around the goal)
26) Ghana (nice team but didn't make the most of their chances; really should've been better, which is kinda promising)
27) Serbia (weird team, weird energy, weird group)
29) Denmark (I dunno, they did nothing)
30) Belgium (my pick to win it all, biggest disappointment of my lifetime; these guys sucked when they could've won the whole thing; something is seriously wrong with this team)
31) Canada (Yeah, outplayed Belgium for 90 minutes (well, 89 minutes an 55 seconds) but two games later, that seems like a major disappointment instead of a rallying cry; Canada was never particularly good on either side)
32) Qatar (Oh man, they sucked at everything! Shocking, too, because I thought they'd be kinda good and...they were not)
No comments:
Post a Comment