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One reason every team at the World Cup can win

By Ty Finch

MOSCOW, RUSSIA DECEMBER 1, 2017: Winner's trophy at the Final Draw for 2018 FIFA World Cup at the State Kremlin Palace. Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS (Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov\TASS via Getty Images)
MOSCOW, RUSSIA DECEMBER 1, 2017: Winner's trophy at the Final Draw for 2018 FIFA World Cup at the State Kremlin Palace. Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS (Photo by Stanislav Krasilnikov\TASS via Getty Images) /
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Everyone knows why Germany, Brazil, et al can win the World Cup. But what about the likes of Tunisia, Saudia Arabia or South Korea?

Only 32 national teams can qualify for the World Cup every four years. Of those 32 teams, there’s only about six that have the utmost belief this could be their year, that this squad of players and this manager are the right ones to take them to the World Cup final.

But this isn’t the place for that kind of thinking. Even the lowest-ranked team in the tournament has at least something going for them that supporters can get excited about. Every team can have some sort of edge over their opponents, even if that edge may not come on the actual soccer field. If Italy, Netherlands and the United States can miss out in 2018, then why can’t Tunisia win the whole thing?

With the World Cup right around the corner, we came up with reasons, group by group, as to why every team could win the World Cup. If now isn’t the time to think about those grandiose aspirations, then when is?

KALININGRAD, RUSSIA – MARCH 6, 2018: A man holds a football on his head during a sports event marking 100 days till the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, at the Europe shopping centre. Vitaly Nevar/TASS (Photo by Vitaly NevarTASS via Getty Images)
KALININGRAD, RUSSIA – MARCH 6, 2018: A man holds a football on his head during a sports event marking 100 days till the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, at the Europe shopping centre. Vitaly Nevar/TASS (Photo by Vitaly NevarTASS via Getty Images) /

Group A

Russia: Home field “advantage”

Russia could very well be the weakest country to host the World Cup since the inception of the competition. Every other team that ended up in their group had to be overjoyed with the result, as they were in Pot 1 with the likes of Germany, Brazil and Belgium.

That being said, they’re still the host country. Home field advantage is real, and Russia will have to lean heavily on it to advance through the competition. The first host country to win the World Cup was Uruguay in the inaugural competition, and five others have joined them, the most recent being France in 1998.

Being a Pot 1 team as the host nation, Russia also have one of the easier group draws. Saudi Arabia have only made the World Cup four other times before and made it out of the group stage just once. Egypt have only been twice, and never made it out of the group stage. Uruguay are the toughest opponents, but a draw could prove to be enough to allow them to top the group.

And that’s not even to mention the more, uh, match-fixy history of host nations at the World Cup. So, without getting too far into the logistics and politics of said incidents or non-incidents, would it be the craziest thing in the world to see the VAR suddenly fail to work in a critical, match-deciding moment?

No, no it would not.

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