This time not much hopes from the Asian teams. Japan is the best bet they definitely have the quality to reach knock out stages. They have some very good experienced foreign based players like Honda , kagawa, hasabe, nagatomo, okazaki etc
Korea somewhat performed disappointing in qualifiers finishinng behind Iran. Will depend a lot on how Son heung, ki sueng, Lee chung along with rest of the team performs. I definitely don't expect them to go beyond group stage.
As for Iran they have shown some good performance at qualifiers but again like their best player reza Gucci plays for Charlton in English second division and other key players are Nekounam of umm salal , ashkan of Fulham and youngstar karim anasfarid who is local based so not much star power there. With federation out of funds they also had minimal exposure and preparation so not much hopes from Iran too.
It's world cup remember what happen to Italy people said they are favorites to win group stage but they finished last.people predicted Newzealand to finish last but they did much better
I expect Iran to pull a surprise here and there. They play some good football when motivated. Remember they beat Korea twice in the 2014 WC qualifiers.
In my opinion, Mexico will qualify instead of Croatia from Group A and England will qualify from Group D instead of Uriguay. Also, I doubt whetehr Ecuador can defeat Nigeria in Second Round. Nigeria will definitely reach Quarter Finals.
I still believe in the US. We may not get the result against Germany but a result against both Portugal and Ghana is realistic. We managed to do it in 2002 we can do it again, just because they have Ronaldo does not make them unbeatable.
Portugal - ronaldo = still good to beat US .....U.S might be 3rd best team in their group.... and in final Brazil vs Germany and 3rd place spain vs argentina.......
Comments
Korea somewhat performed disappointing in qualifiers finishinng behind Iran. Will depend a lot on how Son heung, ki sueng, Lee chung along with rest of the team performs. I definitely don't expect them to go beyond group stage.
As for Iran they have shown some good performance at qualifiers but again like their best player reza Gucci plays for Charlton in English second division and other key players are Nekounam of umm salal , ashkan of Fulham and youngstar karim anasfarid who is local based so not much star power there. With federation out of funds they also had minimal exposure and preparation so not much hopes from Iran too.