Who Will Win The 2014 World Cup?

by Thomas Penlington

Will Neymar bring Brazil
victory in the World Cup?

The Brazil World Cup 2014 promises to be potentially one of the most exciting tournaments to date. The expectation upon the shoulders of the home team, Brazil, and unchanging expectations concerning Germany's performance will all add up to an exciting and nervy tournament. Brazil are favourites, in my opinion; furthermore their scintillating and dominating performance in the Confederations Cup proved to many that Scolari had built a team made to play dynamic attacking football and win. Without sacrificing anything at the back with committed and talented defenders such as Marcelo, Luiz and Silva and the goalkeeper once synonymous with the phrase "best keeper in the world", Brazil pose the biggest threat to other teams hopeful of winning the World Cup, particularly with the likes of Neymar, Hulk, Lucas Moura, who add a universally desirable flair and attacking threat. The apparent ease with which Brazil surpassed Spain in the Confederations Cup final shows they can also perform aggressive attacking football against the top teams. However, the expectation to perform may be too much for Brazil to handle, a team recently notoriously disappointing in international tournaments although that seems to be changing with success in the Confederations Cup against competitive teams.

Spain are the current World champions and, where considered untouchable as a team at one point after their recent success, they were confidently and embarrassingly beaten by a Brazilian team who pose an attacking threat equal and perhaps greater than Spain’s. Spain is definitely expected to overcome the embarrassment of the Confederations Cup loss to Brazil and enjoy success at the World Cup. However, as many Spanish fans will tell you, the Confederations Cup isn’t considered to be one of the most highly competitive international tournaments and Spain didn’t exactly perform drastically badly - they reached the final of a tournament regarded as a warm-up for the World Cup, the real competitive stage. Although the rise of Spain as the top international football team may have peaked and be on the decline, they still play some of the best and (most importantly) successful style of possession football.

Germany, once considered one of the best football teams in the world, have somewhat been forgotten and have almost slipped beneath the radar recently. Perhaps the lack of international focus and media focused on Germany has relieved some pressure placed upon them and could work ito their benefit, allowing them to just focus on their football. However, there is a large amount of home pressure originating from within Germany itself. Most recently, Germany managed only a 1-0 victory over Chile and were booed off after a disappointing performance. The vast array of talented footballers within their ranks can do them no harm; from Ozil, Gotze, Muller to Lahm, there are world class players in almost every position. Germany in my opinion are ranked as third favourites to succeed in the Brazil World Cup and if their star players all perform to their best ability I see no reason why they wouldn’t win.

Overall, I believe that Brazil will triumph in their home World Cup due to a number of factors. They have one of the best players in the world and potentially the best player in the world: Neymar. They also have the best overall attack in the tournament, I believe, made up of players including Neymar, Hulk and Lucas Moura, all not only capable of team play but also of individual ability. Lastly, I believe Spain and Germany will not pose enough of an attacking threat. Spain play dynamic flowing football but they sometimes lack an end result and I believe Germany will experience a disappointing tournament.