Who to support at the World Cup

      It is finally here and things have been as awful as expected. But I love this sport and love this tournament, so I am going watch it. Here is my rooting interest guide for American fans new to the tournament.

      Who should you root for? 48 teams is a lot. So I’ll break the teams into groups and give advice from there. Pick a group and then pick one of the teams in it. Or pick a team from a couple groups. I won’t tell. Plus there are just too many good stories to root for only one team. As always, feel free to root for teams of your ancestry. Root for teams of immigrants near you (my love of the game comes from growing up around Portuguese immigrants). Root for places you’ve visited or want to visit. Root for places that make the best food. Just have fun.

• Group A: New Kids

  • There are four debutants this year, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde, and Curaçao. You cannot go wrong for picking one of these if you want to root for an underdog. If you love Baseball then Curaçao is a no brainer.

• Group B: Big Boys

  • France, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina. You know them, everyone knows them. Do you want a shot at rooting for the winner? Then this is a good place to start.

• Group C: The Little Guys

  • These countries aren’t new but their chances are as long as anyone in Group A. You pick one of them, because picking a debutant is easy. These are the real underdogs. DR Congo, Haiti, Iraq, and Ghana. Any and all of these countries could use some love and you get points for supporting them.

• Group D : The Contenders

  • These countries should do well, but how well? Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Ecuador are all capable of making the Semis. They all have a chance to win. Some are bigger risk for a fan to take than others. But if you want a long run, any of them should get your there.

• Group E: Ring of Fire

  • These countries are all out in the Pacific and their fans have some of the toughest time zone issues for WC fans. New Zealand, Australia, ROK, and Japan. Granted the last two, Korea and Japan will give you more bang for your rooting buck, but the Socceroos have a cool nickname and who doesn’t think the Haka is cool? You want to have fun this tournament? Then picking one of these teams will be the way to go.

• Group F: Latin Flavor

  • The rest of the Latin American teams are still fun and worth rooting for. Panama is our CONCACAF (North America) outlier as they aren’t hosting, but also, don’t suck. While Columbia, Uruguay, and Paraguay are our mid-tier COMNEBOL (South America) teams. They aren’t going far, but they are good teams with fun fans. If any of these 4 breakout, you’ll look like a genius.

• Group G: The I hate America list

  • It sucks but the USA are the ultimate bad guys this year, like Berlin Olympics 36 bad guys. So if you can’t support the US, and you shouldn’t, then Mexico, Canada, Iran, and Scotland are your go-tos. Iran for obvious reasons. Mexico because they are the US’ main soccer rival. Canada because you need someone close to home. Scotland because those guys would love to dump on us if nothing else.

• Group H: The Evil Empires.

  • These are the bad guys. The US, South Africa, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Rooting for one of these teams is the most morally questionable thing you can do if you are following the tournament. Seriously, go root for anyone else. Three of these are obviously bad countries doing bad things. But why South Africa? It is complicated, but apparently most of the African teams are rooting for Mexico this WC because of bad things RSA is doing domestically.

• Group I: Third Tier Contenders

  • None of these teams is going to win, but do not tell that to any of their fans! England, Morocco, Belgium, Senegal. These teams will give you a heart attack rooting for them. They will likely go on a run and then break your heart. Beware. But sometimes heartbreak is worth it.

• Group: J: The rest of CAF

  • Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast might not be the biggest names or have the highest of expectations. But we said that about Morocco 4 years ago and they are now a legit quality team. This could be Mohammed Salah’s last’s dance at the WC and he is a fun player to watch. Any of these teams would love to have you on their bandwagon. Picking a semi-random African team is never a bad place to start.

• Group: K: The European Cool Flags

  • Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Czechia. These countries all have a cool flags, the Swiss flag is the only square one in the world. Many a noob has made bank off picking their NCAA tournament bracket by picking their favorite mascots. Picking by cool flag is just as valid.

• Group L: The Leftovers

  • What? I’m left with four seemingly random UEFA teams? Shocker! They get so many teams that of course the last group will be for Euros I had not mentioned. None of them are great, but they each are solid. Türkiye’s fans are insanely passionate, Norway’s photo team has been on point so far, Sweden always puts up a good fight, and Austria is making their first WC appearance in 28 years. Swap them into one of my underdog groups.

      With the exception of the evil empire group, you can almost not go wrong with a rooting interest in the World Cup. And I promise that if you watch, you will see things that rarely happen. The heat will be a story, so expect the African, Caribbean, and South American teams to handle that better than European teams. The stadiums are large, not as large as the biggest soccer stadiums, but bigger than most of the players are used to. And because it is mostly in the US, expect to see people with family ties to these nations pack these stadiums. Expect the teams playing in Canada to harder dealing with the heat and going from reasonable to unreasonable climates. This could become a bigger story.

      Someone is going to make an underdog run, will you dare to pick a team that could do it? Someone could win their first World Cup. One of the big boys could just dominate. But there will be a ton of interesting things that happen between now and then. I am going to turn off my rage for a bit and enjoy one of the best sporting events in the world. I refuse to let Trump and his cult of bigots take it from me.

      Thanks for reading,

-Philip