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I love Belgium and have rooted for the "Red Devils" for years but come on, it's nowhere near the top 10 in the world. It has done nothing so far to deserve that status. When Belgium consistently beats other major footballing powers, when it qualifies for more than one tournament in a row and when it gets far in those tournaments (at least QF), then we may start calling it a top 10 footballing nation.
No one is saying that they are the top 10 greatest of all time, but they have a strong argument for being top 10 on present form. Who would you rate as clearly better?
Spain
Germany
Argetina
Brazil
Portugal
Italy
There are other teams who are ranked higher than them - and lower - but we all know that FIFA rankings are crap anyways. But I think if you are not one of the teams above, that you are not likely to be favorites over Belgium at this moment, and even of those above, if you aren't Spain, Germany or Argentina I don't think that you are that far beyond or comfortable going into a match with Belgium right now.
No one is saying that they are the top 10 greatest of all time, but they have a strong argument for being top 10 on present form. Who would you rate as clearly better?
Spain
Germany
Argetina
Brazil
Portugal
Italy
There are other teams who are ranked higher than them - and lower - but we all know that FIFA rankings are crap anyways. But I think if you are not one of the teams above, that you are not likely to be favorites over Belgium at this moment, and even of those above, if you aren't Spain, Germany or Argentina I don't think that you are that far beyond or comfortable going into a match with Belgium right now.
Why not? What has Belgium done to make them such clear favourites over any team but the major footballing powers? I just think it's way too soon to hype them like this based on a good performance in the WCQ (for the first time in a long time). They haven't beaten any major team in a competitive match in recent years - not even Croatia (the #2 in their group). In friendlies, their only notable result was a home win against The Netherlands, which fielded a team full of debutants right after the catastrophal Euro 2012 (this was in August). It's hard to tell where Belgium stands compared to other national teams, especially since we don't know how they will perform under the competitive pressure of a tournament. I would not consider Belgium a clear favourite over any South American team (except Bolivia). I would not consider Belgium a clear favourite over traditional powers such as England, The Netherlands and France. I would not consider Belgium a clear favourite over most of the qualified African teams (Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon). In fact, I would not even consider Belgium a clear favourite over the second-tier European teams (Russia, Greece, Croatia, Sweden, etc.).
Like I said, I've supported Belgium for a long time (even when it wasn't the "cool" thing to do). I want them to do well. I'm just being realistic. Nothing Belgium has done so far warrants the kind of expectations that are put on them. Yes, they are doing great in the WCQ but they got that far by beating Serbia, Macedonia, Wales and Scotland. They will face much stronger opposition in the WC and who knows how it will turn out.
This World Cup is very unpredictable and that's one reason I'm looking forward to it. I honestly have no idea how my own team (The Netherlands) will do. We're cruising through the qualifiers as usual but that doesn't say much. In 2010, we made it to the finals of the WC. In 2012, we didn't make it past the group stage of the Euro. This time, we have a lot of new players and a very young team so it could go either way. At least this World Cup, I have two teams to root for
Croatia are good though, especially for having only 3 million people, the size of a lot of cities!
Croatia has around 4.5 million people but they are indeed doing very well considering their size. I'm even more impressed with Montenegro though, a country of only 0.5 million people that manages to compete with much bigger countries like England and Ukraine for a spot at the WC (currently #2 in their group) and also finished #2 in their group for the Euro 2012 qualifiers.
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