| Team |
Average Ranking |
#1 Rankings |
Highest Ranking |
Lowest Ranking |
Standard Deviation |
Boosters (Top Ranked By) |
Commentary |
| The Favourites |
| Brazil | 2.00 | 15 | 1 | 9 | 1.60 | Alvaro, Andrew, Bryan, Christian, Ian, Jason, Jeff, John, JonK, JonP, Mark, Roel, SeanC, Stan, & Trevor | Not too surprising that the home side would be favoured, especially since they've won more World Cups than any other country...Owen is the only one not to place them in the top four; his entry will likely live or die with the probable Brazil-Chile match in the round of 16... |
| Argentina | 2.67 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 1.69 | Brian, George, JonP, Owen, Pablo, & SeanL | Hoping the proximity to home and superstar Messi will be big factors, Argentina comes close to Brazil's top ranking... |
| Germany | 2.90 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1.18 | Amhlaoibh, Bryan, Nicholaus, & Victor | With a staggeringly narrow range and low standard deviation, it may not matter much how the Germans fare, but they are the collective third favourite to win... |
| Spain | 3.33 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1.35 | Chris, Dave, & Trevor | The pressure is on the defending champions, although only three entries have them picked to repeat... |
| The Dark Horses |
| Portugal | 8.67 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 2.83 | Christian (followed by JonK, Owen, & SeanL at 5) | With a yawning gulf in average ranking of more than five notches after Spain, I can barely justify calling Portugal a dark horse, especially since their average ranking is only marginally better than 2010 when I classified them as a longshot, but they are distinctly atop the crowd of "everyone else" aside from the consensus final four... |
| The Longshots |
| Italy | 9.53 | 0 | 3 | 18 | 4.99 | Mark & Suzanne (followed by Owen at 4) | Italy is generally favoured to advance from group D, but there is disagreement about how far they can actually get... |
| Belgium | 9.83 | 0 | 4 | 21 | 4.43 | Brian (followed by George, Pablo, & Stan at 5) | Despite missing the last World Cup, Belgium are generally expected to at least make it out of a relatively weak group G, with a few picking them to make it even farther than that... |
| Uruguay | 10.10 | 0 | 4 | 27 | 5.30 | Amhlaoibh (followed by Alvaro at 5) | Uruguay has one of the wider spreads, with little consensus emerging on a difficult group D... |
| France | 10.23 | 0 | 5 | 24 | 4.99 | Dave, Jeff, & John | Les Bleus are favoured to win group E, but with an average ranking in double digits, not many see them going much farther... |
| Colombia | 10.43 | 0 | 5 | 21 | 3.64 | Chris (followed by JonP at 6) | With the lowest standard deviation aside from the top five and bottom four teams, Colombia is a consensus pick to win group C, but apparently most think they can't handle facing a team emerging from group D after that... |
| England | 12.10 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 5.31 | Suzanne (followed by George, JonP, & Trevor at 5) | England get the only top ranking outside of the consensus final four, but only the third-highest average ranking in group D, implying most think they won't even get out of the group stage... |
| Netherlands | 13.60 | 0 | 4 | 24 | 5.35 | Nicholaus & Suzanne (followed by Brian, Dave, John, & SeanL at 8) | Nobody picked them to make it back to the finals, but the Oranje do garner the second-highest ranking in a challenging group B... |
| Switzerland | 13.67 | 0 | 4 | 25 | 6.19 | Bryan (followed by Jason at 5) | In contrast to last World Cup, the Swiss have the second-highest standard deviation and one of the higher spreads, implying that how they fare could be integral to the pool results... |
| Russia | 14.90 | 0 | 9 | 24 | 3.69 | Mark (followed by Jeff, Owen, & Pablo at 10) | Russia are fairly tightly clustered in the second quartile, meaning most expect them to advance from group H, but go no farther... |
| Chile | 14.93 | 0 | 3 | 31 | 5.75 | Owen (followed by Andrew at 5) | Chile has the widest spread of any team this year, although since other teams have higher standard deviations, most entries must have them ranked toward the middle... |
| Croatia | 15.60 | 0 | 9 | 32 | 4.96 | Bryan & Chris (followed by John at 10) | Returning to the World Cup after missing 2010, Croatia are generally favoured to take the second spot in group A, but then hit a brick wall in the form of the winner of a tough group B (Spain?)... |
| Bosnia & Herzegovina | 16.50 | 0 | 7 | 31 | 5.99 | Owen (followed by George at 8) | In their first World Cup appearance, and with an average ranking as average as it can get, it's difficult to know what to make of Bosnia & Herzegovina... |
| The Faint Hopes |
| Ivory Coast | 18.26 | 0 | 10 | 25 | 5.14 | Chris & JonP (followed by George, Jason, Mark, & Trevor at 12) | With an average ranking not far from the middle and one of the narrowest spreads (aside from the very top and bottom teams) it appears many are hedging one way or the other with the Elephants ... |
| Ecuador | 18.50 | 0 | 5 | 25 | 5.62 | JonP (followed by himself at 7) | Ecuador often win at home and lose away, so the question becomes whether playing in another South American country is close enough to home... |
| Mexico | 19.13 | 0 | 11 | 25 | 3.85 | Brian & Christian (followed by John at 13) | Mexico seems to be fairly tightly clustered around the third quartile, meaning that most don't expect them to get out of the group stage, but are hedging with them a bit... |
| Greece | 19.27 | 0 | 5 | 30 | 6.61 | Bryan (followed by himself & John at 9) | With the highest standard deviation and second-highest spread, Greece definitely should be a difference-maker in the pool... |
| United States | 20.93 | 0 | 8 | 28 | 4.40 | Victor (followed by John at 12) | The US are another team mostly clustered in the third quartile, as only a few think they can repeat their feat of 2010 in advancing beyond the group stage, but most think they'll at least pick up some points... |
| Nigeria | 21.87 | 0 | 8 | 30 | 5.04 | Trevor (followed by Suzanne at 10) | Nigeria is generally not expected to make it out of group F, but there are a few believers... |
| Japan | 22.83 | 0 | 11 | 32 | 5.78 | JonK & JonP (followed by Trevor at 13) | Japan has the third-highest standard deviation, so their fate could factor into the pool results... |
| South Korea | 23.83 | 0 | 12 | 31 | 5.60 | JonP & Owen (followed by Suzanne at 14) | Most don't expect the South Koreans to make it out of group G... |
| Ghana | 23.97 | 0 | 14 | 32 | 4.62 | Brian (followed by Roel at 18) | Only Brian gives Ghana enough credit to come out of the group stage... |
| Algeria | 26.63 | 0 | 18 | 32 | 4.61 | Jason (followed by Bryan at 19) | Algeria almost exactly matches their average ranking from 2010, with few expectations... |
| Cameroon | 26.63 | 0 | 12 | 32 | 4.21 | Suzanne (followed by Brian at 17) | Cameroon's past history of exceeding expectations garners them a couple of middling rankings, but mostly toward the bottom... |
| Honduras | 28.27 | 0 | 24 | 32 | 2.16 | Nicholaus (followed by Amhlaoibh, Christian, & Ian at 25) | With the lowest standard deviation of the bottom teams and lowest highest ranking (along with Costa Rica) Honduras aren't expected to make much noise... |
| Costa Rica | 28.33 | 0 | 24 | 32 | 2.38 | Ian (followed by Andrew at 25) | Facing a tough draw in group D, Costa Rica isn't given much credit, with the lowest highest ranking (matching Honduras)... |
| Iran | 28.80 | 0 | 21 | 32 | 2.61 | SeanL (followed by Jason, SeanC, & Suzanne at 25) | Returning to the World Cup after missing the last one, nobody expects Iran to advance beyond the group stage... |
| Australia | 29.73 | 0 | 16 | 32 | 3.67 | Nicholaus (followed by Brian at 21) | The Socceroos exceeded expectations at the last two World Cups, but this time only Nicholaus picked them to get past the group stage... |
