The most popular sporting event is here again after four years. Thirty two teams will vie for the beautiful game's most coveted trophy. Even though India is nowhere near qualifying for the tournament, once can't help being infected by the football fever spreading like wild fire.
As always the pundits have come out with their favorites. Brazil, Germany, France and Spain are being touted as the four front runners followed by Argentina close behind. Belgium are being tipped as the dark horses. The list of countries that have won the cup is a small one. One cannot help feeling that it would be good for the sport if Belgium or anyone outside of the top 5 end up as winners. It would be a fairy tale story.
Around this time there are lots of side stories and this year they include a celebrity cat whose 'predictions' for each match are being widely followed. Credit to it, the prediction for the first match was spot on. Russia defeated Saudi Arabia last night and the cat got it right!
I do not propose to make predictions of my own but will list my favorite teams. Brazil followed by Spain are the two teams I will follow closely. Brazil is always wonderful to watch and except during 1986, I have supported them everytime. 1986 of course was Maradona's World cup and because of his presence, Argentina was the team of choice back then.
One advantage of India being no where in the picture is that one can sit back and enjoy the football as a neutral :)
All the best to the 32 teams and hope we will get a goal filled exciting set of matches in next month. And at the end of it we will hopefully have a worthy winner.
