May the best nation win.

June 14th marks the kick-off of 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ and whether it’s playing out on the field or on a screen, we’re watching. Here’s a snapshot of the teams to watch:

Germany

The 2014 World Cup Champions are angling for another victory, and the odds are in their favor with a 10/10 win record in the finals. This team is a well-balanced blend of hotshot rookies and experienced pros like Jopachim Löw. The challenge? Captain and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is nursing a left foot injury. TBD on whether he’s 100%.

France

France is a young team eager to prove it’s worth. The youthful zest and swaggering skill of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Thomas Lemar, Griezmann, Paul Pogba et al make them favourites … for 2022. The extraordinary skills of returning pro Antoine Griezmann, however, keep them on the watch list. The challenge: Inexperience.

Spain

Can Spain repeat its 2010 victory? Recent victories against rivals like Argentina have fans hyped. Players who sealed the deal in ‘10, such as Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, David Silva or Gerard Piqué, are set to return alongside young players with exceptional skills. The challenge: A lack of wingers means a lack of width that other teams bring to the table.

Brazil

The five-time world champions were the first team to clinch qualification for Russia. Unlike the mechanic structure of Germany, Brazil are famed for their extravagant style and “moment-making” football. The Challenge: Focus, and overcoming the fact that a South American team has never won the World Cup in Europe.

Mexico

Mexico has been the topic of a little bit of controversy as of late. Nevertheless, they’ve still been allowed to compete. They’ve got a lot to prove being ranked 15th, but surprises have happened before. This time around though, the competition is stiff. The most attainable impressive feat we can see from Mexico this year is making it past the quarter finals; which would be further than the team has ever gone in a world cup. Do you think they have the chops to beat Brazil?

Argentina

Many people debate whether or not a star player can carry a team to victory. In Argentina’s case, that star player is Lionel Messi. Considering Argentina qualified for the cup by winning two matches without Messi, they are proof that they are a strong team without Messi. Knowing he’ll be on the field, though solidifies Argentina as a team to watch.

Columbia

Its almost guaranteed that Columbia will make it out of Group H. They are one of the teams to watch this world cup for sure. Without the mega star power of Argentina and the entertaining performance of Brazil, Columbia has still proven to be one of the fiercest teams this time around. Do they have the chops to hold their own against the big dogs? We’ll have to wait and find out.

The World Cup on Your Couch

As sports fans, we all have our own World Cup dream scenarios. And they never become what we end up seeing on the TV.

Here at KontrolFreek we understand. Sometimes you just wanna step away from the live broadcast and into the mind of the coach, and the midfielders, and the keeper; basically everyone. I mean after all, you’re the only one who could have done it better.

And now you can with the new FIFA 18 World Cup Update. It includes all 12 of the tournament’s unique stadiums and all 32 licensed teams. Take a break from watching your team live at the cup and go straight to playing them all the way to a virtual victory before they take the real thing.

EA even took it to the next level by running the whole world cup through a simulation so see who comes out on top. Can you take a guess who won?

Better yet, the full roster of players is updated in tandem with the actual events of the world cup providing for the closest interactive FIFA experience. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure your controller is covered by KontrolFreek’s Striker thumbsticks to add some extra accuracy to every shot you take.

Predictions From the KF Office

Our resident FIFA hooligans are really stoked for the world cup this year. We literally had a meeting last week to talk about it and bring some original KontrolFreek flavor to the conversation around the World Cup. And boy did we deliver.

First off, we re-vamped our FUT team so that it only includes World Cup players. Take a look at our curated all-star lineup.

Also yes. We know that almost every player on this team speaks a different language. The communication is in the gutter. Don’t give us a hard time about it. A team this good doesn’t need to talk.

In other news, we’ve made our prediction for who’s going to take it all and a laid it all out in a with FOTMOB. If you couldn’t tell already, we here at KontrolFreek LOVE us some charts. Shouts out to Carlos for putting it together.

How do you think we did? Leave a comment or reach out to us on twitter and let us know if you think we messed up. Happy 2018 World Cup to all of you FreekNation FIFA fans!

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