Favorites in football

Favorites in football--- there are certainly not one especially at the World Cup.  The ongoing event in Russia is a classic example. Defending champions Germany, former champions Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and five-time winners Brazil have all bite the dust.

In truth, that’s rarely – if ever – the case, with the burden of expectation more often serving as a weighted jacket.

Germany became a team to turn favoritism into a fallacy, ending its campaign more than two weeks sooner than it thought it would, with the ignominy of a last-place finish in Group F, behind Sweden, Mexico and South Korea

Such an outcome barely seemed possible a year ago, when the Germans sliced through the Confederations Cup with what amounted to a reserve team, nor at the start of this month, when it selected a squad so loaded with talent that a cache of genuine world-class stars were omitted.

But favoritism is shaky here because it is based on unreliable factors. Because soccer is primarily a club game and national teams don’t play together very often, likely winners are usually picked based on the strength of a squad on paper.  In reality, football is a game more reliant than any other on the collective meshing of pieces.

Performances against inferior opposition, in situations far different from the World Cup mean that preconceived notions are often misleading, tilted or out of date.

It stands to reason that a previous World Cup champion should stand among the favorites for the next tournament, and it was clearly the case here. But Germany became old and stale over the intervening four years, and it took the most demanding competition in soccer to lay that bare.

Four of the past five World Cups have now seen the champion falter in the group stage, with Spain four years ago, Italy in 2010, and France in 2002. Only Brazil managed to survive that fate in 2006 by getting to the quarterfinals.

Only one South American team has won a World Cup staged in Europe, Brazil winning in 1958.

And now one from the continent will be able to lay their hands on the trophy in Russia.

Brazil found itself in trouble when it was ruthlessly deposed by Belgium on Friday night while another South American team Uruguay crashed out ending the continent’s challenge at the event.

The very concept of favoritism is mainly derived from odds and betting, and the bookmakers, those unsentimental seekers of profit, have Spain at the top of their markets. Part of that is because of how the draw has unfolded, with Spain on what is considered the more comfortable side of the knockout bracket.

France is up there too in the odds table and has every right to be considered among the chief contenders. It has quality in every position, sauntered through its group and its current crop came mightily close to winning the European Championship in 2016.

How it progresses may hinge on its ability to showcase the effectiveness of a strong team as opposed to a brilliant individual.

Indeed, Belgium, England, and Croatia all have better prospects and more rounded teams. The Belgians and Croats are running out of time to capitalize on their respective golden generations.

France, the former champions face Belgium in the semi-finals.

England’s golden era is nearly an obsolete memory, with its sole title coming in 1966 and will face Croatia in the second semi-final.

Out of the teams which crashed out, the host was quite the opposite of a favorite coming into the tournament, ranked lowest out of all teams and even written off by its own fans.