Despite this World Cup being marred by corruption, human rights abuses (not to say this is new to FIFA), awful timing (having the tournament in the winter and multiple stars having to miss it because of injuries with domestic clubs just weeks before the tournament), and Fyre festival like facilities for fans, it is still by the far the world's biggest sporting event and I am extremely excited to watch it. TV coverage will be on Fox and Fox Sports 1, while you can stream on Peacock, Fubo, SlingTV, and Vidgo. This can also be used as the U.S. Men's National Team thread, as well, depending on how much traffic this thread accumulates.
The tournament kicks off on Sunday with host nation Qatar facing Ecuador at 11 AM EST. Brazil (+400) are the favorites to lift the trophy, with a veteran (maybe too veteran) defense and a bevy of attacking options. The rest of the odds are as follows: Argentina +550, France +600, England +800, Spain +850, Germany +1000, Netherlands +1200, Portugal +1400. I created a World Cup bracket and have a semi-final of Brazil beating France and Portugal beating Denmark, with Brazil beating Portugal in the final. You can create your own bracket here.
I predict Karim Benzema will win the Golden Boot, Neymar will win the Golden Ball, Alisson will win the Golden Gloves, and Camavinga will win the Best Young Player award, only because Rafael Leao and Aurélien Tchouaméni are not eligible for the award.
The USMNT announced their 26-man roster last Wednesday, and safe to say I am not overly happy with the selections. Aaron Long, Christian Roldan, Jordan Morris, and Jesus Ferreira and to some extent Sean Johnson have no business being in the squad over players like Ricardo Pepi, Jordan Pefok, Zach Steffen, and Malik Tillman.
I think the starting XI against Wales will be Turner, Robinson, Long, Zimmerman, Dest, Adams, Musah, Aaronson, Pulisic, Sargent, and Reyna. With McKennie recovering from injury and Berhalter including Aaronson in the squad as a midfielder, I think it is best to have Weston come off the bench to start. Personally, I would put Reyna as a false 9 with Pulisic and Weah as the wingers, but there is no precedent of that happening so it would not be smart to roll that out first game of the tournament. I think the goal should be to make it out of the group stage and see what can happen in the knockouts, but I am not overly confident in even that happening right now.
Drop all predictions and any other thoughts you all have below. I have a lot of great memories of watching this tournament and hope we see some amazing play, especially with it being Messi and Ronaldo's last World Cup.
