Sharing the group stage with Brazil is no picnic, but Mexico has high expectations for World Cup 2014, despite facing the favorites in the first phase of the competition. The North Americans will be playing for the second place, with Croatia being the most dangerous foe, but Cameroon shouldn't be underestimated either. Bookmakers are not particularly confident in their chances of winning the tournament, and the odds of 101 to 1 speak for themselves. This makes little difference for coach…

Croatia was never a favorite to win the World Cup, but they were expected to advance much easier to the main event. The qualification campaign started slowly and the team was sluggish but in the end achieved its target and survive the playoffs against Iceland. For a team packed with gifted players and featuring names that were heard often in the Champions League this season, Croatia was rather disappointing. They have an excellent opportunity to change that impression in Brazil…

The African Lions will be traveling to Brazil, knowing that they face seemingly insurmountable odds in Group A. Cameroon starts with the worse chance to win the group at 26 to 1 and those who trust them to simply survive this stage will increase their investment six times. A couple of years ago, they would have been favorites against both Croatia and Mexico, but much has changed and very little for the better. In a nutshell, Cameroon is struggling due…

For reasons completely unrelated to football, Russians are not very popular worldwide right now and they won't have many supporters in Brazil either. Geopolitical issues are not the concern of Russian footballers though and they will be focusing exclusively on how to survive the group stage. They were lucky to be drawn against Belgium, Algeria and South Korea, with the European opponents being the dangerous ones The key to making it to the next stage is collecting as many points…