The 2022 Men’s World Cup kicked off November 20th and will end on December 18th. This World Cup’s groupings and results have been very surprising to say the least. At the very beginning of the tournament, each team goes through the Group stage where they are separated into a group with three other teams and play a round-robin with the two teams at the top advancing to the Round of 16. There are eight groups total from A-H. The top teams from each group advancing were Portugal, South Korea, Brazil, Switzerland, Morocco, Croatia, Japan, Spain, France, Australia, Argentina, Poland, England, United States, Netherlands, and Senegal. Mexico, Germany, and Belgium all narrowly missed their shot at moving forward in this tournament, shocking everyone with Belgium ranked second, Germany eleventh, and Mexico thirteenth in the world. 

Some of the major teams in this tournament had a rocky start to the group stage. Argentina’s first game against Saudi Arabia did not go as planned with Saudi Arabia winning with a late goal beating Argentina 2-1. After this slow start, Argentina went on to beat both other teams in their bracket to advance to the Round of 16. With it being Messi’s last World Cup without bringing home a World Cup trophy, Argentina is definitely one of the teams to keep your eye on as the tournament continues. Also in Brazil’s opening match, one of their star players, Neymar Jr., sprained his ankle and was unable to continue the match or play in the rest of the group stage matches. They easily advanced through without him, but moving forward it may be difficult if he cannot recover. Thankfully it is said he is ready to play in their first Round of 16 match against South Korea. Ranked first in the world, there is a lot of pressure for them to perform and advance to the finals so they can take home the trophy. The United States vs England match was an

agonizing game to watch with both teams having many opportunities to finish but neither resulting in a goal. The game ended 0-0 with this being one of the two ties the United States had, barely making through to the rest of the tournament. 

As far as stats and awards go there are already predictions as to who will take the title overall, who will win the Golden Boot, and who will win the Golden Glove. The Golden Boot is the award for the player who scores the most goals in the tournament. If there is a tie then the tiebreaker would be the player who has played the least amount of minutes. The top three predictions as of now for this award are Mbappe from France with five goals, Messi from Argentina with three goals, and Richarlison from Brazil with two. Unlike how the Golden Boot is based on stats alone, the Golden Glove goes to the goalkeeper with the best overall performance. The Technical Study Group (TSG) is responsible for analyzing and deciding which goalkeeper the award goes to. As of now the predicted winners are Keylor Navas from Costa Rica, Manuel Neuer from Germany, Hugo Lloris from France, Alisson from Brazil, Thibaut Courtois from Belgium, Emiliano Martinez from Argentina, and Unai Simon from Spain. Although these are the top seven, the goalkeepers from countries that have been knocked out of the tournament before the Group of 16 have a smaller likelihood of winning the Golden Glove as it typically goes to the World Cup winner’s keeper. As of now the top four teams predicted to advance to the final are Brazil, Argentina, France, and Spain. Three out of four of these teams finished top of their group with promising momentum taking them into the rest of the tournament. Argentina and France are already set to play in the quarterfinals with Brazil and Spain waiting till their game on December 6th to see who advances. The Semi-finals will be played on the 13th and 14th, and the finals will be played on Sunday December 18th at 10am ET in the United States. These are the top teams to watch as the World Cup continues!

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