Fifa World Cup is almost among us and the speculations are running wild.
Jose Morinho, Chelsea’s manager, is hands down the winner of the equine analogy this year. For those not ‘in the loop,’ earlier in season when the race for title was getting hot, Moriho referred to his team as “a little horse that still needs milk and to learn how to jump, a horse that next season can race”.
In response, Liverpool’s manager Brendan Rodgers is described his team as a Chihuahua that runs in between the horses’ legs.”
When it comes to ‘dark horses’ and equine metaphors, those phrases seem to be abused in most sports circles, and this year’s World Cup is definitely no different – there are plenty of little ponies and dark horses. This is just two of the team that are putting up a challenge that was unexpected.
Belgium
This tiny country of just 11 million often finds itself at the mercy of ridicule form its surrounding European neighbors. It’s earned a stereotype as being the chocolate eating beer guzzling capital of the world. The Belgium’s take their jabs in stride and so when everyone overlooks them for having any football talent, they grin and accept that jab too.
Those that think they should stick to drinking beer and leave football to the experts could be in for a big surprise since it’s very apparent that Chelsea’s Hazard is one of the best players in the entire World Cup tournament. They convinced Manchester’s United’s winger Adnan Januzaj to represent Belgium while Wolfsburg’s Kevin De Bruyne, Everton’s Kevin Mirallas and Napoli’s Dries Mertens, are forces in the midfield to be reckoned with.
Dembele and Witsel offer a destructive central midfield strength that just might have people talking. Chelsea Romelu Lukaku had a heck of a season while on loan to Everton and he’ll more than likely be ‘the guy’ to lead Belgium’s attack in Brazil. In addition, Belgian has the best keeper in the world – Thibaut Courtois – hands down the best!
Let’s not forget about their backline made up of Tottenham, Jan Vertonghen, Atletico Madrid’s Toby Alderweireld, Arsenal’s Thomas Vermalean, and Manchester City’s inspirational captain Vincent Kompany. It is, however, evident that they do lack natural fullbacks and even with some top names this team has recently stuttered and fallen. This has many worried as we head into the World Cup.
A Belgium-Portugal tie could be one of the top clashes in round 2. The Belgians are in the unusual position of being a popular choice for the ‘dark horse’ label.
France
There’s no question that there’s been great drama and entertainment by Les Blues in previous cups. In 1998, they won the cup at home and their campaigns always have a lot of controversy around them. In the 2010 French Revolution the squad, under the direction of Captain Patrice Evra rebelled against their manager Raymond Domenech.
Then of course, there is the image many of us still have of Zenedine Zidane head-butting Marco Materrazi. The French were so bad they couldn’t even make it out of their group. Manager Didier Deschamps, in an effort to maintain the harmony of the squad, took a major call with the exclusion of Manchester City’s mercurial playmaker Samir Nasri from the World Cup party. Samir Nasri had not performed well in the first leg of their qualifying playoff against the Ukraine. France landed up losing 2-0, which likely sealed Nasri’s fate right there.
PSG’s Yohan Cabaye, Blaise Matuidi, and Paul Pogba of Juventus, will most likely occupy the central midfield. This is a heck of a powerful combination of athleticism and technical ability, which is thought will help the French dominate games. It’s likely that Madrid’s Karim Benzema will likely lead the line. This could be 31-year-old Franck Ribery (winger) last opportunity to really stand out on the global stage. If things go right, he could live up to his billing as one of the stars of the 2014 edition.
One of the youngest players to keep an eye on this World Cup is Antoine Griezmann, who really shined Spanish club Real Sociedad. He’s an intelligent dribbler that will mesmerize you. However, it is likely that Mathieu Valbuena, who is much more experienced and also an excellent creative midfielder will start on the right hand side. The defense also looks really good.
When it comes to Tottenham this season, keeper Hugo Lloris has been one of the few to impress. France’s current mix of centre backs are lucky to have strength and pace equally. Mathieu Debuchy and Patrice Evra, who have both been key to France’s defense, will likely start as fullbacks. Deschamps has switched from a 4-2-3-1 to an attacking 4 -3 -3 formation to get the best out of his young and exciting team.
It won’t be long now before we will no longer be speculating and will actually know whose going to shine as the ‘dark horse.’
