Who's going to Brazil predictions

[Drama Queen]

Should have started this thread a while ago... there are some countries already eliminated in Asia, Africa and Concacaf!

But anyway, still plenty of guessing ahead, although let's see if you can get them in before the next global round of qualifiers in mid-November.

Basically, it's see how many of the 32 nations you can guess correctly. I'll start things off with my next post.

[Drama Queen]

OK, well since it's in Brazil, I might as well start in South America, where the hosts qualify automatically, and then the next 4.5 teams out of the one large group of 9 (I have to say South America have it ridiculously easy in that sense) the .5 team plays off against Oceania winners. I fancy the usual suspects of course, the Argies and Uruguay, but the rest of the field is usually a mish-mash of up and down form. I'm gonna go with Ecuador and Colombia. I think Peru will fill in the next spot but lose to New Zealand in the play-off. Huh, all in all I guess I'm not expecting the S.American table to change much ver the next two years.

So far I've got...

Brazil
Argentina
Uruguay
Colombia
Ecuador
New Zealand


Now I'm going to go my own zone of residency, Concacaf where it's really a game of picking who's going to accompany the States and Mexico. Always a tough call. I'm going with Honduras this time because they seem to have an easier path to the final group. I'm going to put Jamaica into the play-off with Asia.

So I'm adding

USA
Mexico
Honduras

I'll wait to see who Jamaica's play-off opponents are before I give them the nod. Which brings me to Asia which is interesting at the moment to say the least. Bear in mind Australia now qualify from here and add the constant Sounth Korea we now have to pick two more and then a candidate for the play-off. Japan are not leading their current group as clearly as you might expect, but let's face it they are still probably the next biggest force on the continent and will probably pull through. There's always at least one Middle East team get's through but none of them seem to be hot at the moment with the exception of Jordan. I'm gonna go with Iran v Jamaica for the play-off, wow, talk about culture clashes, that would be an interesting home and away scenario. Hmm... I'll follow my heart for that one so....

South Korea
Australia
Japan
Jordan
Jamaica

Now to Africa, the continent of pot luck because no matter how much you know about football, the qualifying process here seems to rely on randomly drawn pairings of the group winners (they may be seeded, I could be wrong) so here I am just going to go with the five strongest in recent history and hope they don't end up playing against each other! Oh and again allowing that at least one North Afcrican team seems to get through each time...

Cameroon
Nigeria
South Africa
Ghana
Tunisia

And so I end in Europe... nice and straitforward to pick the group winners, but will be relying on the random factor for the runners-up play-off spots... let's take a look, 1st the winners...

Croatia
Italy
Germany
Turkey
Norway
Russia
Slovakia
Poland
Spain

Wow, some tough groups there and some messy ones... Spain and France paired together? I tried to allow a few upsets, because there always are some

And now to pick the the runners up who will presumably beat not get drawn against each other and beat their opponents

Republic of Ireland
Italy
Portugal
Switzerland

(guess which one I followed my heart for instead of logic...lol)

Well, that's my list... I know I have at least one out of the 32 guaranteed

Post your own here and I'll keep a record as teams get through or get eliminated.

[Adam Wrong]

Default:
Brazil

AFC:
Australia
Japan
South Korea
Iran

CONMEBOL
Argentina
Chile
Uruguay
Colombia
Ecuador (Beat Uzbekistan in Play-Off)

CAF
Ivory Coast
South Africa
Egypt
Ghana
Senegal

OFC
None (New Zealand lose play-off)

CONCACAF
United States
Mexico
Honduras
Costa Rica (Beat New Zealand in Playoff)

UEFA
Croatia
Italy
Germany
Netherlands
Switzerland
Russia
Slovakia
England
Spain

PlayOff
France
Montenegro
Portugal
Sweden

[Drama Queen]

Brazil
Argentina
Uruguay
Colombia
Ecuador
New Zealand
USA
Mexico
Honduras
South Korea
Australia
Japan
Jordan
Jamaica
Cameroon
Nigeria
South Africa
Ghana
Tunisia
Croatia
Italy
Germany
Turkey
Norway
Russia
Slovakia
Poland
Spain
Republic of Ireland
Italy
Portugal
Switzerland

Brazil
Australia
Japan
South Korea
Iran
Argentina
Chile
Uruguay
Colombia
Ecuador
Ivory Coast
South Africa
Egypt
Ghana
Senegal
United States
Mexico
Honduras
Costa Rica
Croatia
Italy
Germany
Netherlands
Switzerland
Russia
Slovakia
England
Spain
France
Montenegro
Portugal
Sweden

Just a compilation of both lists so far.

No major names were eliminated this month, although South Korea have a game in February that if they lose, will likely see the end of their 2014 campaign already! That to me would be a huge scalp so early, they have been in every World Cup since I started watching with Mexico 86! MDK made a good pick with Uzbekistan, they are on hot form at the moment.

The Sout American group is a clusterfuck with Uruguay being the only team with any sort of consistancy at the moment. Though it's early days and one still has to expect Argentina to get thier act together, even if they lost to Venezuela and only drew with Bolivia.

Everywhere else, things are only getting started for the major players and Europe wont be starting until after the Euro 2012 of course (which happens to be the first one Ireland have qualified for in 24 years on a completely unrelated but personnally satisfying note )

Anyway, still time to make your selections if you want to join in.

[Drama Queen]

Well even though only myself and mdk took part, I'll bump this to make it easier to find as its almost time to start counting up.

[Jerry McClean]

I don't actually remember this from before...would be a bit cheeky to join in now! haha

I was reading your choices having not noticed the dates and thought that some of them were rather...odd lol. I don't think I'd have done very well way back in 2011 tbh

[Flins.]

I missed this as well, would've be fun to try and predict. You guys got any dark horses for the World Cup in what you've seen in qualifying? I'm thinking this might be a break out tournament for the Belgium national team.

[Adam Wrong]

I completely overlooked Belgium...