Russia 2018: The Predictions

The World Cup is the biggest competition in world football and it gives us to see the best talent from all over the world. The likes of Netherlands, Italy and Chile may not have qualified for this year’s tournament but I still expect it to be one of the best World Cup. One thing I believe what will be of keen interest in this year’s tournament and what it’ll mean for football is the introduction of VAR. It will be the first time such Innovation will be used in a World cup though it has been tried in some leagues and was also in place at last year’s confederations cup but this will be the tournament that will probably determine if VAR is ready to be adopted immediately by the football World. There have been criticism from some quarters over the time taken before decision is made. However if the technology can be a success at the biggest competition in World football, then it’ll be a great win for football. Football fans all over the world should hope that VAR is a success in Russia because its success will ensure controversies in football are reduced to the barest minimum and there’s no better tournament for VAR to be a success than the World cup, We saw it with the Goal line technology and the vanishing spray which was introduced by FIFA at the 2014 World Cup and has been embraced by the football World.

World Cup winners

It is hard say any other team than Brazil for me. Since Tite came in to replace Dunga he has transformed the team. They breezed through the tough qualifying section of South America with four games to spare. They now have the belief and a big plus for them is that they have their talisman Neymar back who will be backed by the likes of Coutinho, Jesus, Firmino and co.

Runners Up

I’ll go with Germany whose squad stoll consist of majority of the players that won the World cup in Brazil. They also qualified for the World Cup with an 100% record the only European team to do that and they still have Joachim Loew in charge. However I think they’ll come up short due to a lack of world class striker plus I believe Brazil will also want to have their revenge.

Surprise Package

Senegal for me will be one of the dark horses of this tournament. They qualified from their Africa qualifying group unbeaten and have some of the best talents in World football. Players like Mane, Koulibaily, Balde, Gueye play for some of the top clubs in Europe. They are managed by Aliou Cisse a former international himself and he has come in with the ideas the players relate to. Their group is also well balanced and I believe they should be a match for both Poland and Colombia who’ll be their main challengers.

MVP

Neymar for me. There were fears he’ll not be in top form by the time the tournament kicks off when he suffered an ankle injury back in match but he’s trained so hard to get back to top fitness. His performances in the build up games to the World cup showed that he hasn’t lost any of his quality.

Top scorer

Neymar.

Best young player

Alex Iwobi. Call me biased or patriotic, but I think if Nigeria’s Coach Rohr can utilize Iwobi in his best position which I feel it’s the Attacking midfielder role then we will see Iwobi in a form we haven’t seen him before. Nevertheless, I expect him to be the shinning light in World Cup journey.

Flops

France National team. There’ve been so much hype about the French team going into the World cup. They have the best individuals in their team but I don’t think they have a team chemistry that compares to the likes of Spain and Germany. I was tempted to go for Ronaldo as my flop but the guy has an habit of making people eat their words when they write him off so I’m going for France.

By Olu for Urban Central @olumcjobson on Twitter

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