Leicester City won the Premier League, Greece won the Euro in 2004, Chelsea won the Champions Cup with Di Matteo… The list could and probably should go on, but for the sake of collective sanity, these examples should suffice, at least for the point being made. Football is full of surprises, and that’s exactly that that makes watching football one of the most interesting and entertaining things one can do to pass time, and well, if supporting a team or national squad, to dream about what seems impossible.
There are a couple favorites to win the old grand prize, some of them almost chronic, and most of the world cup 2022 betting will be flocked towards them. France, Spain and Brazil are surely, if not powerhouses, heavy candidates, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t teams capable to steer the pot and create football magic for the ages.
As a passive observer, surprises are the best we get from football. That, and pure talent. Fortunately, they go hand in hand, and the overlap is pure magic. Specially so when this World Cup will be played in the Winter, and different markets are open in relation to what normally happens in the Summer. That should not be deemed as tangential to the situation.
This is all well and good, but what teams can make a loud statement in Qatar?
Portugal
It’s not Ronaldo. It’s Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Jota, Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Nuno Mendes, Pepe, João Félix.. And the list goes on. If there’s a golden generation in Portugal’s history, it’s this one. And maybe the one next to this one. If Portugal manages, under Fernando Santos, to create a habitable tactic to all the talents, they can stand in the face of everyone without looking like underdogs.
England
Let us take a memory lane through the Euro 2020 and check England’s rooster. It is populated by seasoned talents, aptly playing in the greatest league of the world, and hardly going through a reformulation: this mean the players know each other, Southgate is well established, and they run smoothly. Not in a class of their own as for now, but who knows?
Germany
Germany should not be in the underdog list, or a surprise list for that matter. But so it happens that Germany fell hard in the last years, and Flick has the reasonable task to gather all of Germany’s talent and compose it until it appears like a well-oiled machine. The quality is there, both on the squad and on the managerial side. It will undoubtedly be hard to face Germany, and the dismissal towards the squad can be a thing that will eventually favor their side.
Argentina
It ain’t what it used to be, and all football fans know it. Messi is aging and losing influence, the young talents are still in a growing phase, and Argentina is dealing with a generational crisis. Then again, there’s Messi, Di Maria, Icardi… and so on. And there’s the will to crown the arguably greatest player ever with the greatest competition ever. If it plays any difference on the stance Argentina will adopt, they might be a menace to pretty much every team.
Belgium
Six years ago, everyone thought Belgium would dominate Europe. Then Portugal and France happened. Then Hazard, Eden, not Thorgan, went kaput and let Belgium orphan of its biggest talent. That being said, one cannot look at Belgium’s squad and wish they don’t couple with our national team too early in the competition.
USA
A bit of a stretch, sure. But the reason why USA makes the list is that they have the ability to be a surprise even by making it through the quarter-finals. And that doesn’t look that far or detached from reality. Not with Sargeant, Pulisic, Dest, and the beaming new generation that is brewing in the US and specially in Germany (thank Red Bull for that, Uncle Sam). They are not candidates per se, or conventionally, but this may be the breakaway tournament for them, and hopefully create more conditions to further develop football in North America.
