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Springbok Players Survey on 2018 Soccer World Cup
As we all know, the 2018 Soccer World Cup is upon us with group stage matches starting on June 14th. It will be the first time this grand international soccer tournament will be held in Eastern Europe, since Russia was awarded the hosting rights by FIFA in 2010. We’ve taken advantage of the occasion and held a survey, asking our loyal players what their thoughts were about participating teams this year, who are their favourites and what are their objective predictions for the most prestigious accolade in soccer taking place all across Russia’s stadiums this summer.
Here at Springbok we are happy to communicate with our customers and ask them directly how they feel about the content we’re presenting them with. From keeping track of the largest sports events in the world to the smallest of slots in our portfolio, the Springbok team is always eager to know how our users are feeling about their Springbok experience.
Obviously, some of the best players in the world of soccer will grace the stage in Russia. A total of 32 teams will be battling for the title, and the mere grandeur of the tournament makes it difficult to predict a winner. However, specific teams stand out as better equipped with players and more aggressive when it comes to taking the title in the final match which will take place on 15th July 2018 at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
There is no way of knowing the outcomes of the matches at this point, but isn’t it fun to guess? Some teams are deemed as undeniably better and superior, but there is always a room for dark horses at every major tournament, and those teams are the ones who upset the established order and make the competition more exciting, as well as worth watching and worth betting on. As we’ve surveyed our customers we’ve asked them to differentiate between the teams they think will win and the teams they would like to win. We’ve asked for both their subjective opinions and desires and their unbiased estimates.
Springbok Players vote for Brazil
Interestingly, the top result to both parts of our survey match - the team that emerged as both expected to win and most rooted for is Brazil. Team Brazil, loaded with talent, complete with their talisman Neymar and also Gabriel Jesus, are the favourites, despite being in a tough group in the group stage, taking on hard-working outfits such as Serbia, Switzerland and Costa Rica. When it comes to entertainment on the stadium, Brazil is the team to side with.
Ranking number two in our survey is Germany. The answers of Springbok players have placed the German team right behind Brazil, both in the ‘expect to win’ and ‘want to win’ categories. The defending champion is loaded with fresh young talent and presents immediate danger to any team that stands up to them on the pitch. The German game is described as elegant, organised and dominant and our audience is counting on them not to disappoint. How could they, when they have the likes of Neuer, Draxler, Kroos, Boateng and Muller to rely on, right?
Spain is voted third most likely to win by Springbok players who think the Furia Roja will demonstrate their furiousness and dominate international soccer once again. They are the world champions 2010 and they have players like Ramos, DeGea, Isco, Silva, Diego Costa and Iniesta at their disposal. With the national team being basically a mixture of top Barcelona and Real Madrid stars, Spain is surely a contender to win lift the World Cup title. Springbok players also want Spain to win, but they seem to want England to win more, according to the votes accumulated in our survey. Brazil, Germany, England and then Spain, is the order on the ‘want to win’ spectrum so far. England is a huge name in soccer, but the fact remains that their overall performances on the international stage have been underwhelming. The Three Lions have no weight of expectation to carry, and that’s what could help them thrive in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Voted fourth in our ‘expected to win’ top 5 list is Argentina, and England is in the fifth position. According to the poles, Argentina rates as a bit of an outsider in Russia, but they have arguably the world’s leading player Leo Messi, and the only thing he lacks to be crowned as the best soccer player in history is the World Cup trophy. Nobody likes seeing Messi sad, so perhaps 2018 will be his lucky year when it comes to securing the missing link.
Argentina doesn’t appear in the top 5 line up of teams Springbok players want to win; instead, Australia takes the fifth position due to the number of received votes from the surveyees. The Socceroos will heavily rely on experienced players Tim Cahill, Mile Jedinak, Aaron Mooy, Tom Rogic and Mathew Leckie in the upcoming matches against France, Denmark and Peru in Russia, but they are not exactly tipped to reach the final stages of the competition.
To summarise, here are the top five picks of Springbok Casino users:
- Teams Springbok players think will win aka ‘The Expected Champions’
- Teams Springbok players want to win aka ‘The Rooted For Favourites’
The 2018 World Cup will be the 21st FIFA World Cup tournament in which the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA compete. With less than a month to go until the highly-anticipated tournament kicks off, we’re feeling the World Cup fever getting a grip on us - are you feeling it too? What do you make of the predictions given by Springbok players? Come June 14th and we’ll see how the qualified squads kick off the competition. May the best team win!
