This sort of thing just doesn’t happen to Spain. The Spanish lost their World Cup opener in 2010 — but not like this. The last time Spain conceded five or more goals in a match, as it did on Friday in a 5-1 loss to the Netherlands, was exactly 51 years ago, in a friendly against Scotland on […]
Brazil, the World Cup host and the clear favorite (in our view), will start off the tournament Thursday with a match against Croatia. Soon after, 30 other countries will take to the pitch with varying prospects of achieving their World Cup dreams. See the FiveThirtyEight World Cup predictions for more on that. But first: a brief tour of World Cup history. We wanted […]
Brazil, the World Cup host and the clear favorite (in our view), will start off the tournament Thursday with a match against Croatia. Soon after, 30 other countries will take to the pitch with varying prospects of achieving their World Cup dreams. See the FiveThirtyEight World Cup predictions for more on that. But first: a brief tour of World Cup history. We wanted […]
On Monday we released FiveThirtyEight’s World Cup predictions, which are based on an algorithm I created with ESPN in 2010, the Soccer Power Index (SPI). Our model has Brazil as the clear frontrunner — partly because of the substantial advantage to the host nation in the World Cup, and partly because SPI rates Brazil as […]
On Monday we released FiveThirtyEight’s World Cup predictions, which are based on an algorithm I created with ESPN in 2010, the Soccer Power Index (SPI). Our model has Brazil as the clear frontrunner — partly because of the substantial advantage to the host nation in the World Cup, and partly because SPI rates Brazil as […]
