There have been five different winners in the last five World Cups - 1998 to 2014.

That's great for football. No dominance\e by any one country.

There have been a few runs of five different winners in sequence but never six different countries.

So who will be next? One of France, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Brazil and Germany or some other team?

Netherlands? Belgium? Colombia? Costa Rica? USA?

Hosts Russia and England can be safely ruled out.

All I know is that Italy will be in the final I don't know who they will lose to though heh...

I'm currently predicting France.

Obviously it's a bit early to tell with players maturing between now and four years. The Belgium squad might be able to compete in four years time. Italy could also be ready to compete properly then. I'd like to see the Dutch lift their World Cup curse.

Yes Netherlands have done their apprenticeship and "serve" to win sometime. But Belgium might pip them to it.

England won't be seeded again so another struggle to get out of the group.

It would be wonderful for the Netherlands to finally win (if Italy get knocked out of course) but it almost seems an impossible dream. All their other teams have been fantastic with 2014 arguably being the weakest of all the great Dutch teams. I still remember their Bergkamp, Kluivert, Davids, Seedorf team vividly. They were just playing the most beautiful football.

Does England really have a worse penalty shootout record than the Dutch?! Wasn't it at Euro 2000 when the Dutch had a phenomenal team and missed 5 penalties (2 of them during the game)?

Ireland

Russia. I mean surely no one seriously thinks any official is going to give any decision at all against the Russian team in Russia?

Sadly I can forsee this:

Commentator: 4 years ago they were humiliated at home but now they've turned it around and are back on top.

*captain lifts the trophy, crowd cheer*

Commentator: Brazil are the 2018 World Champions!


Makes you wanna throw up doesn't it.

Why? I would love for them to bounce back and actually play some Brazilian football at the next World Cup (with at least 21 new players of course). Sadly, as the poster above said, I foresee disgusting refereeing in favour of the host nation and Russia at least getting to the semi-final. It will be South Korea all over again.

I think Germany will be there next time. In the final with Holland and perhaps this time Holland will win.

I think Johan Cruyff made a pact with the Devil that if he can't win the World Cup, no other Dutchman ever will. He just has to remain the greatest Dutch player in history.

It's probably going to be either Spain or Germany. I can see those two teams dominating Intentional football for the next few years.

If under-21 results are anything to go by one would have to say Spain.

Watch out for USA , their football is growing fast , they have a great coach full of ideas.
Klinsmann is ,in part ,the architect of this Germany team ...he started this project IIRC with Loew.

This Belgium team can also grow , certainly challenge for the next Euros.

BIB - no. Loew is the architect of this Germany team. He was always their proper coach even in the Klinsmann days.

Wasn't Klinsmann though , involved in restructuring the football schools back in the early 2000's or am I remembering incorrectly?
I agree with you on Loew being the "allenatore" i think you know what i mean

The Netherlands are the Jimmy White of World Cup football.

You can't always go on the U-21 results, they don't always translate into success at senior level.

I liked the USA, athleticism and fair play, they added to the World Cup and I can see them getting even better. The Germany v USA game was brilliant.

Belgium were a disappointment but it may be down to naivete. I'm not sure they will triumph anytime soon.


What's Bierhoff's role and was he not part of the Klinsmann team as well?

He is supposed to look after the team, make sure they are happy.

Klinsmann was Mr. Motivator (now Captain America), Löw the Tech Guy and Bierhoff the Nanny as far as I have understood it.

Good one, Goodwin!!

It's England's turn. There's enough ability in English football (if you throw in a bit of luck) to win the world cup. We need to get past that stage where 9 or 10 of them all seem to have one of their worst games together, when it really counts.

There really isn't compared to the top countries, but if you throw in a lot of luck then yes we stand a chance.

well England won the under 17 European football championship this year, so that might give a bit of hope for the future of English football.

Brilliant

You can't really believe that, surely?

I doubt we'll ever see England win the World Cup again.

[quote=Flat Matt;73748720]You can't really believe that, surely?

I doubt we'll ever see England win the World Cup again.[/QUOTE]

wow so negative, the situatuation may not be good right now but to say we'll never win it again is going a bit far, sure it might take about 50 years but I think England will win it again one day.