Can Belgium win the world cup?

Jarrod

Currently 14/1 with PP. Holland, Italy, Colombia and England are the next 4 in the betting, ranging from 18/1 to 25/1. All 4 would be a better bet than Begium, IMO. If I was to pick a dark horse, it'd be Colombia at 25/1.

Chancer3001

Com pare it with the Argentinian team, on home continent and Belgium as winners falls apart.


Messi, augero, tevez, laveZi, di Maria, higuain, mascherano, pastore, lamela, banega, garay, zabaleta, otamendi.

If they get any kind of decent manager they'll win it.

Jelle1880

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Com pare it with the Argentinian team, on home continent and Belgium as winners falls apart.


Messi, augero, tevez, laveZi, di Maria, higuain, mascherano, pastore, lamela, banega, garay, zabaleta, otamendi.

If they get any kind of decent manager they'll win it.

Argentina have done about as much as Belgium in the last few World Cups.

F*ck. All. Square. Root. Of.

klose

Jarrod wrote: »

Currently 14/1 with PP. Holland, Italy, Colombia and England are the next 4 in the betting, ranging from 18/1 to 25/1. All 4 would be a better bet than Begium, IMO. If I was to pick a dark horse, it'd be Colombia at 25/1.

Chile too could go into the latter stages, colombia a good shout too.

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Com pare it with the Argentinian team, on home continent and Belgium as winners falls apart.


Messi, augero, tevez, laveZi, di Maria, higuain, mascherano, pastore, lamela, banega, garay, zabaleta, otamendi.

If they get any kind of decent manager they'll win it.

Argentina are stupidly staked in attack alright. Their defence isint that great though

Skylinehead

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Argentina have done about as much as Belgium in the last few World Cups.

F*ck. All. Square. Root. Of.

I think being at the World Cup is doing a hell of a lot more than not being at the World Cup.

Diabhal Beag

I do kinda want them to get absolutely annihilated next year after all the "Belgium are fairly under-rated if you ask me" pish.

GTR63

Diabhal Beag wrote: »

I do kinda want them to get absolutely annihilated next year after all the "Belgium are fairly under-rated if you ask me" pish.

That`d be funny then Linekar would say is it cause of the competitiveness of the Premier League while I puke in a bin.
I bet people were saying the same thing Serbia in 2006 or Cote D`ivoire around the same time, Dark horses who have a few good players

ricero

Who starts in goal for belgium ?

Johner

ricero wrote: »

Who starts in goal for belgium ?

Courtois.

Chancer3001

Mignolet on the beach iirc

Jelle1880

Skylinehead wrote: »

I think being at the World Cup is doing a hell of a lot more than not being at the World Cup.

Only if you get to the latter stages imo.

1998: Quarter finals
2002: Out in the group stages
2006: Quarter finals
2010: Quarter finals

There is nothing to indicate that this year will be any different, there's at least a few countries that I believe will be better than Argentina and bigger favourites to win it, whether they get a good coach or not.

seligehgit

Can't see them winning it,strongly fancy the Germans.They are due a World Cup win and although the team is quite young,after the World Cup 2010 semi final loss and Euro 2012 semi final loss the pressure is on this golden generation to deliver.
Although Brazil won the Confederations Cup they did not impress me,they defeated a group of Spanish players who've been playing football non stop since 2010.
Ok I'm out the door to back the Germans.>>>>>>>

justshane

I think they lack top class full backs which will hamper them.

klose

seligehgit wrote: »

Can't see them winning it,strongly fancy the Germans.They are due a World Cup win and although the team is quite young,after the World Cup 2010 semi final loss and Euro 2012 semi final loss the pressure is on this golden generation to deliver.
Although Brazil won the Confederations Cup they did not impress me,they defeated a group of Spanish players who've been playing football non stop since 2010.
Ok I'm out the door to back the Germans.>>>>>>>

I read that some germans really doubt leows ability to get them to win it, they're also all pretty pissed over the kißling situation too understandably enough. Would love to see em do it myself.

seligehgit

Philipp Lahm is a world class full back,is Mats Hummels injured?Can't for the life of me understand how the Germans can expect to win the WC with the pedestrian Per Mertesacker holding the middle?Badstuber is a pretty handy centre back too.They really have an embarrassment of riches in midfield,Gundogan,Draxler,Reus......

Samba

It's kind of hard to ignore a key stat that no European team has ever won a WC on South American soil.

I don't think Belgium have a hope and backing them is burning money imho.

If I was to back any European team as a dark horse, I'd probably have to go for Italy.

The Italians have a knack for grinding out results and winning major tournaments and if any European team has what it takes to nick it off the S. American teams, it's definitely Italy.

I see Italy @ 23/1 on some sites and Belgium as low as 12/1, that's madness.

Surprised the Greeks haven't gotten a mention yet, some serious value there!

The climate may play a part but it depends on what regions the games are being played in, I still haven't checked this out, but basically some regions of Brazil can be milder than some may think during our Summer months. Basically it's mixed bag.

Brazilian climate

messinkiapina

If Greece can win the Euros, Belgium can win the WC. They're an outsider of course, but outside of Spain, Germany, Argentina and Brazil they've probably as good a shot as anyone.

SantryRed

Jelle1880 wrote: »

There is nothing to indicate that this year will be any different, there's at least a few countries that I believe will be better than Argentina and bigger favourites to win it, whether they get a good coach or not.

I dunno, not having Maradona as manager must help a bit :pac:

carlop

Italy at 20s and maybe Chile at 50s E/W are the value there. Belgium are far too short a price. They have a good group of players but in no way should they be 5th favourites for a World Cup that is being held in South America.

GTR63

Chancer3001 wrote: »

Mignolet on the beach iirc

If the World Cup wasn`t in Brazil i`d think this was a typo.

BunShopVoyeur.

I'm going for Uruguay myself.

Skylinehead

Jelle1880 wrote: »

Only if you get to the latter stages imo.

1998: Quarter finals
2002: Out in the group stages
2006: Quarter finals
2010: Quarter finals

There is nothing to indicate that this year will be any different, there's at least a few countries that I believe will be better than Argentina and bigger favourites to win it, whether they get a good coach or not.

The quarter finals are the latter stages. There's only 3 meaningful matches beyond them.

seligehgit wrote: »

Philipp Lahm is a world class full back,is Mats Hummels injured?Can't for the life of me understand how the Germans can expect to win the WC with the pedestrian Per Mertesacker holding the middle?Badstuber is a pretty handy centre back too.They really have an embarrassment of riches in midfield,Gundogan,Draxler,Reus......

You clearly haven't watch Mertesacker very often, he's anything but pedestrian. People use his speed to put him down, but ignore his absolutely superb tackling and reading of the game.

seligehgit

Skylinehead wrote: »

The quarter finals are the latter stages. There's only 3 meaningful matches beyond them.


You clearly haven't watch Mertesacker very often, he's anything but pedestrian. People use his speed to put him down, but ignore his absolutely superb tackling and reading of the game.

Fair enough I am not a Gooners fan:D,I would still rate Hummels a better centre half.

klose

BunShopVoyeur. wrote: »

I'm going for Uruguay myself.

Not a hope

loyatemu

Samba wrote: »

It's kind of hard to ignore a key stat that no European team has ever won a WC on South American soil.

prior to the last WC, no European team had ever won outside of Europe. Spain ended that statistic...

AdamD

It hasn't been held in South America since 1978, its far less important where its held now than it was back then.

Samba

loyatemu wrote: »

prior to the last WC, no European team had ever won outside of Europe. Spain ended that statistic...

Only 2 WCs have been played outside of the Americas and Europe?

One of them being S. Africa, I get what you're saying but that's a skewed example.

I'm not saying it's impossible, stats get broken all the time, my point is that it is not a stat I would ignore when considering backing a team like Belgium at such a short price, especially considering their experience in winning major tournaments, which is non-existent.

yabadabado

Bump

I see Belgium are ranked 2nd in the latest FIFA rankings.I know these rankings are far from an ideal barometer but they have to be doing something right.

They were 71st in 2007 and have gradually moved up the rankings,anything in particular to explain it ?
Did the Belgium FA pump money into underage infrastructure?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

AdamD wrote: »

It hasn't been held in South America since 1978, its far less important where its held now than it was back then.

Until last year, no European team had won in America north or south. So you can include 1986 and 1994 to that.

Of course, Germany ended that particular trend.

Jelle1880

yabadabado wrote: »

Bump

I see Belgium are ranked 2nd in the latest FIFA rankings.I know these rankings are far from an ideal barometer but they have to be doing something right.

They were 71st in 2007 and have gradually moved up the rankings,anything in particular to explain it ?
Did the Belgium FA pump money into underage infrastructure?

Lots of bigger clubs like Anderlecht, Brugge and Standard have invested heavily (with some help from the government) into youth academies.

It has paid of it seems, and it looks like our next generation will contain some great players too (especially at Anderlecht, whose U19 have beaten the likes of Barcelona and Porto lately).