The trio

Early on I began to publish lists on Facebook where I would list a group of teams and say that final four would emerge from that group.  So far so good.  I would like to further that prediction and indicate that I am prepared to boldly state at this point the following:

The winner of the World Cup will be from the following list of teams:

France
Germany
Mexico

All three have shown identity, very high quality, the ability to rout opposition.  They have tremendous athletes, difference makers, solid goal keeping, and are all very well coached.

Brazil is not a contender and but for the blatant theft of the game from Croatia, would not even be in the second round.  Look out for more cheating by referees to help Brazil but at the end of the day they are lacking quality to such a great degree than even referee assistance won't be able to save them.  They have no midfield to speak of and very weak strikers.  David Luiz is an overrated defender.  Their coach is a motivator not a tactician and look for him to get soundly out coached once he faces serious opposition.

Argentina is a good team despite Messi being a wasted pass 99% of the game.  He has had the stroke of luck in two matches but I don't expect that to continue.  At the end of the day, if Messi got hurt I would include Argentina in my contenders list.  But he just can't carry a team too far when he gets the ball passed to him 40 times a game and loses it to the opposition 39 of those 40 times.  Argentina will have to face a team that can score multiple goals on them.  And when they do, Messi on the pitch will be the reason they can't recover.