A justifiable place for Brazil remains among Western European teams

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Russia kicked off the 2018 World Cup with a convincing 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia on Thursday, and Friday was highlighted by a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick as Portugal and Spain played to a 3-3 draw in Group B.

The exciting beginning of the World Cup also adds fuel to the question of who will win. Although it’s too early to make a prediction, the leading contenders for World Cup champion are still European teams, such as France and Germany, which reveals a structural problem of lopsided dominance.

“Of the last six World Cup finalists, five have come from Western Europe,” Tim Vickery, South American football expert, said. “Western Europe congregates the best players in its club football and most of the good ideas as well.”

Vickery also mentioned that it’s been 60 years since a South American team last time won the World Cup in Europe, and that was Brazil.

The Brazilian National Team may be the biggest challenger to Western European dominance and has won the most World Cups throughout history – five, followed by Germany and Italy with four each.

“They go into the World Cup with a justifiable place amongst the big favorites,” Vickery said.

Compared with other non-European teams, Brazil is better prepared this year. A new coach armed with modern tactical ideas cooperates with outstanding individual talents, making them “much more compact.” Brazil has strengthened its back line so it will have a much stronger defense to take on attacks, which is a trait shared by most World Cup champions.

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“It compacts the players close together, that makes them harder to play through defensively,” Vickery explained. This tactic also gives the man with the ball more passing options when the team has possession.

Taking a broader view of the situation, Western European teams regularly fix their internal problems. However, teams from South America and Africa do not.

For example, Argentina, a classic match for Brazil, has a major renewal problem. It used to be good at the under-20 level, but their under-20 side has been very poor over the past decades, which has filtered through to the senior side.

“Under-20 level produced a conveyor belt of talent for their senior ranks,” Vickery said, adding that now Argentina has a team "which is very, very dependent on Lionel Messi.”

Chuka Onwumechili, a professor of communications at Howard University in Washington, DC, who mainly focuses on football and communications in Africa, thinks Morocco should be the continent's best team. However, Morocco finds itself in a tough group with Spain and Portugal and advancement to the next round means getting past one of these impressive teams.

Looking at European teams, Russia, Germany and Spain have encountered some problems during their recent games.

Artur Petrosyan, a Russian football journalist and scout, talked about the internal problems Russia's team has faced. He said the team has lacked confidence, even during the game against Saudi Arabia because it lost one of its best attacking players.

“Russia hadn’t won seven matches before today,” Petrosyan said, adding that the team produced only one shot on goal in the last two friendlies.

Spain's coaching switch just before the World Cup might destabilize the team, Onwumechili said.

Germany, 2014 World Cup champions, also has issues and “their form going into the World Cup hasn’t been particularly good,” Vickery explained.

Therefore, Brazil will be a strong contender to unseat European dominance. But we still don't know which team will be the last one standing when the World Cup comes to an end.

The Heat with Anand Naidoo is a 30-minute political talk show on CGTN. It airs weekdays at 7:00 a.m. BJT and 7:00 p.m. Eastern in the United States.