Watched Brazil the other day - they look to be in pretty good form. Canged my perception a bit watching them. They are definitely the "expert's" favourite with who's left in the tournament. Neymar was constantly grimacing and writhing around in agony going for the actor of the year award. Another great player acting like a shameless clown.
Belgium getting tons of "bad press" but they were solid. Japan is a quality team who, if you know soccer, you can see they are tactically almost perfect. They keep their shape, transition the ball through the middle third and execute solid attacks. They are also the team with the best conditioning in the tournament. Japan lacks the individual talent - but ANY team needs to play carefully with them. Definitely no easy walk in the park for Belgium.
Belgium is still, and will remain to be, one of the strongest left in the tournament. One of my original picks (the only one left too - lol).
I'd like to see Croatia and Belgium in the final, but they both have some serious work to do before then.
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