r/worldcup

Goalkeepers
Manuel Neuer (40, Bayern Munich)
Oliver Baumann (35, Hoffenheim)
Alexander Nübel (29, Stuttgart)
Jonas Urbig (22, Bayern Munich)*
*training goalkeeper

Defenders
Jonathan Tah (30, Bayern Munich)
Joshua Kimmich (c) (31, Bayern Munich)
Nico Schlotterbeck (26, Borussia Dortmund)
Antonio Rüdiger (33, Real Madrid)
David Raum (28, RB Lepizig)
Nathaniel Brown (22, Eintracht Frankfurt)
Waldemar Anton (29, Borussia Dortmund)
Malick Thiaw (24, Newcastle United)

Midfielders
Pascal Gross (34, Brighton and Hove Albion)
Leon Goretzka (31, Bayern Munich)
Aleksandar Pavlovic (22, Bayern Munich)
Felix Nmecha (25, Borussia Dortmund)
Nadiem Amiri (29, Mainz)
Angelo Stiller (25, Stuttgart)

Attackers
Kai Havertz (26, Arsenal)
Nick Woltemade (24, Newcastle United)
Deniz Undav (29, Stuttgart)
Jamal Musiala (23, Bayern Munich)
Florian Wirtz (23, Liverpool)
Lennart Karl (18, Bayern Munich)
Jamie Leweling (25, Stuttgart)
Leroy Sané (30, Galatasaray)
Maximilian Beier (23, Borussia Dortmund)

With the World Cup starting in just a few weeks, almost all the media coverage and fan discussions are focusing on one major storyline: the potential last dance for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
It feels like the entire tournament is being treated as a farewell tour for these two legends.
Do you think this hyper-focus on their legacy is good for the tournament, or is it distracting from the new generation of stars and the 48 teams competing? Are you watching this World Cup for the final chapter of the GOAT debate, or are you already over the media hype?

The German World Cup squad at a glance:

Goalkeepers: Oliver Baumann (TSG Hoffenheim), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Alexander Nübel (VfB Stuttgart)

Defense: Waldemar Anton (Borussia Dortmund), Nathaniel Brown (Eintracht Frankfurt), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Jonathan Tah (Bayern Munich), Malick Thiaw (Newcastle United)

Midfield: Pascal Groß (Brighton & Hove Albion), Felix Nmecha (Borussia Dortmund), Aleksandar Pavlovic (Bayern Munich), Angelo Stiller (VfB Stuttgart), Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich), Nadiem Amiri (FSV Mainz 05)

Attack: Maximilian Beier (Borussia Dortmund), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), Lennart Karl (Bayern Munich), Jamie Leweling (VfB Stuttgart), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Leroy Sané (Galatasaray Istanbul), Deniz Undav (VfB Stuttgart), Florian Wirtz (Liverpool), Nick Woltemade (Newcastle United)

-----

Biggest surprise: Neuer in the selection and nr 1 keeper, despite playing his last matches at the Euros.

Goalkeepers: Mohamed El Shenawy (Al-Ahly), Moustafa Shobeir (Al-Ahly), El Mahdy Soliman (Al-Zamalek), Mohamed Alaa (El Gouna)

Defenders: Mohamed Hany (Al-Ahly), Tarek Alaa (ZED FC), Hamdy Fathy (Al-Wakrah), Ramy Rabia (Al Ain), Yasser Ibrahim (Al-Ahly), Hossam Abdelmaguid (Al-Zamalek), Mohamed Abdelmonem (OGC Nice), Ahmed El Fotouh (Al-Zamalek), Karim Hafez (Pyramids)

Midfielders: Marwan Attia (Al-Ahly), Mohanad Lasheen (Pyramids), Donga (Al Najma), Mahmoud Saber (ZED FC), Zizo (Al-Ahly), Trézéguet (Al-Ahly), Emam Ashour (Al-Ahly), Mostafa Ziko (Pyramids), Ibrahim Adel (Nordsjaelland), Haissem Hassan (Real Oviedo), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

Forwards: Omar Marmoush (Manchester City), Aktay Abdallah (ENPPI), Hamza Abdelkarim (Barcelona B)

After the friendly against Russia on May 28, Egypt will cut one player to finalize their 26-man tournament squad

The 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa was the coldest on record, with an on-pitch temperature of −1°C recorded at the Group G match between Brazil and North Korea at Ellis Park, Johannesburg on 15 June, 2010.

Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (Porto), José Sá (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rui Silva (Sporting CP)

Defenders: Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Matheus Nunes (Manchester City), Nélson Semedo (Fenerbahçe), João Cancelo (Barcelona), Nuno Mendes (PSG), Gonçalo Inácio (Sporting CP), Renato Veiga (Villarreal), Rúben Dias (Manchester City), Tomás Araújo (Benfica) 

Midfielders: Rúben Neves (Al-Hilal), Samú Costa (Mallorca), João Neves (PSG), Vitinha (PSG), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)

Forwards: João Félix (Al Nassr), Trincão (Sporting CP), Francisco Conceição (Juventus), Pedro Neto (Chelsea), Rafael Leão (AC Milan), Gonçalo Guedes (Real Sociedad), Gonçalo Ramos (PSG), Cristiano Ronaldo (Al-Nassr)

Free PDF download seeing below.

Schedule https://we.tl/t-EQhqeVPXtgR0j7fX

Final https://we.tl/t-EQhqeVPXtgR0j7fX

Carlo Ancelotti, back in March: "The World Cup is won by whoever concedes the least, not whoever scores the most."

It's a testable claim. Eight World Cups from 1994 to 2022, eight champions, each with a full seven-game run.

The goals-conceded record:

| Year | Winner | Conceded (7 games) | Per game |

|------|--------|:--:|:--:|

| 1994 | Brazil | 3 | 0.43 |

| 1998 | France | 2 | 0.29 |

| 2002 | Brazil | 4 | 0.57 |

| 2006 | Italy | 2 | 0.29 |

| 2010 | Spain | 2 | 0.29 |

| 2014 | Germany | 4 | 0.57 |

| 2018 | France | 6 | 0.86 |

| 2022 | Argentina | 8 | 1.14 |

Average across all eight winners: 0.55 goals conceded per game. Six of the eight conceded four or fewer in the entire tournament. The three best defensive records of any champion since 1994 (France '98, Italy '06, Spain '10) all belong to title winners. Italy in 2006 conceded one own goal and one penalty across seven games. Buffon was never beaten by an opponent's shot.

The one real outlier is Argentina 2022 at 1.14. But that side needed penalty last-second Kolo Muani one-on-one to avoid losing the final in open play. It survived its defense. It wasn't carried by it.

So the claim mostly holds, which makes Ancelotti's own Brazil the interesting part. In 10 games under him, Brazil has conceded 8 (0.80 per game). That sits above every champion in the study except France 2018 and Argentina 2022, and it came against friendlies and qualifiers, not knockout opposition.

The issue isn't the names. The May 18 squad has Alisson, Marquinhos (PSG) and Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal). That back line is employed at the same club level as England's, France's and Spain's. The problem is cohesion. Marquinhos and Gabriel have barely started as a centre-back pair, and the screen in front of them is Casemiro at 34. Ancelotti gets four days between group games to drill it.

Genuine question for the sub: does the "defense wins it" pattern still hold, or did Argentina 2022 mark the point where an elite attack can outrun a leaky defense across seven games? And if it does hold, is four days ever enough for a coach to build a new centre-back partnership from scratch?

I pulled the full breakdown into a writeup (per-tournament detail, the Argentina 2022 case, and a table comparing where Brazil's defenders play against England, France, Spain and Germany):

https://squadranks.com/blog/defense-wins-world-cups-ancelotti/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=worldcup

Sources: goals-conceded figures are official FIFA tournament records; Brazil's 26-man squad is the May 18 announcement; Ancelotti's record with Brazil so far is 5W-2D-3L across 10 matches.

Everyone’s talking about the World Cup going from 32 to 48 teams, but honestly… it doesn’t feel like it’s changed much. I feel like it’s going to be the same old tournament, just with more games and some really weak teams.

Does anyone else feel like this expansion isn’t actually improving the quality or excitement of the tournament?

Goalkeepers
- Patrick Pentz — Brøndby (Danish Superliga)
- Alexander Schlager — RB Salzburg (Austrian Bundesliga)
- Florian Wiegele — Viktoria Plzeň (Czech First League)

Defenders
- David Affengruber — Elche (LaLiga 2)
- David Alaba — Real Madrid (LaLiga)
- Kevin Danso — Tottenham (Premier League)
- Marco Friedl — Werder Bremen (Bundesliga)
- Philipp Lienhart — Freiburg (Bundesliga)
- Phillipp Mwene — Mainz 05 (Bundesliga)
- Stefan Posch — Mainz 05 (Bundesliga)
- Alexander Prass — Hoffenheim (Bundesliga)
- Michael Svoboda — Venezia (Serie A)

Midfielders
- Christoph Baumgartner — RB Leipzig (Bundesliga)
- Carney Chukwuemeka — Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga)
- Florian Grillitsch — SC Braga (Primeira Liga)
- Konrad Laimer — Bayern Munich (Bundesliga)
- Marcel Sabitzer — Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga)
- Xaver Schlager — RB Leipzig (Bundesliga)
- Romano Schmid — Werder Bremen (Bundesliga)
- Alessandro Schöpf — Wolfsberger AC (Austrian Bundesliga)
- Nicolas Seiwald — RB Leipzig (Bundesliga)
- Paul Wanner — PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie)
- Patrick Wimmer — Wolfsburg (Bundesliga)

Forwards
- Marko Arnautović — Red Star Belgrade (Serbian SuperLiga)
- Michael Gregoritsch — Augsburg (Bundesliga)
- Sasa Kalajdzic — LASK (Austrian Bundesliga)