Boris "Bubs" Malloy
We’re almost a year removed from Germany claiming its fourth World Cup in Rio de Janeiro and let’s just say the biggest news in the FIFA world has not been on the field. The newest development is that Russia could lose its host bid of the 2018 World Cup if it can be proven that bribery was a part of them securing the tournament. While it will be interesting to see how the situation unfolds over the coming months, it’s fair to say the Russian squad weren’t exactly favorites to be winning any hardware on their home field.
With Copa America and Euro qualifiers underway, we are getting a glimpse at what the favorites are up to and, while we still can’t put too much stock into results like USA’s 2-1 friendly win over Germany, we are starting to see which teams could turn some heads three years from now in [location to-be-determined].
So now is as good a time as any to update our list of favorites to win the 2018 World Cup.
Despite their setback to Team America: World Police, the defending champs remain the faves. And despite getting embarrassed by Germany in the 2014 semifinals (7-0!), Brazil sits second. Lio Messi and his Argentine compatriots round out the top three, while the surprising Americans are up to 30/1, level with England! (Ouch, that’s gotta sting for the Three Lions.)
Here’s our full list of the favorites – plus one notable longshot. (I didn’t quite realize how bad our neighbors to the north are at soccer until researching this piece.) As always if you think we screwed up, yell at us on that twitter thing or in the comments.
Odds to win the 2018 World Cup:
- Germany – 5/1
- Brazil – 13/2
- Argentina – 13/2
- Spain – 9/1
- France – 9/1
- Colombia – 12/1
- Netherlands – 16/1
- Italy – 16/1
- Belgium – 20/1
- Portugal – 24/1
- U.S.A. – 30/1
- England – 30/1
- Russia (as host) – 30/1
- Uruguay – 40/1
- Canada – 350/1 [They didn’t win a game – or score a goal – at the Gold Cup!]
(Photo Credit: Danilo Borges/Portal da Copa copa2014.gov.br Licença Creative Commons Atribuição 3.0 Brasil ([1]) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
