World Cup 2014: Spain most popular but Brazil will win, says students
AS the World Cup kicks off, soccer fans David Lopez and Kan Sagara survey students from Trinity College Foundation Studies about their favourite teams, and it’s not all down to good play, it seems.
Four years have passed since soccer fans around the world witnessed the dramatic victory of Spain over Holland that gave them their first World Cup in Johannesburg.
This new edition in Brazil is expected to surpass the amazing quality of organisation and play shown in the previous one with teams like Germany, Spain, Brazil and Italy all tipped to win.
But the rising stars are to be taken seriously too, with great play from Belgium, Chile and Uruguay and their respective world stars Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez and Luis Suarez.
A survey of 50 Trinity College Foundation Studies students from 13 different countries found most of their home countries would not be represented in the tournament with the exceptions of Ecuador, Japan and South Korea.
Spain was the most popular country students chose to support, followed by Germany and Argentina. According to the survey, students took into account not just good play, but good looks too.
Eight per cent of students surveyed whose home country would be participating in the World Cup did not believe their teams would make it pass the group stage.
The survey also uncovered an interesting finding. While Brazil did not make the top three most popular countries to support, the host country was tipped as the favourite to win (36 per cent), followed by Spain (28 per cent) and Germany (14 per cent).
Students surveyed said they felt Brazil would win because they had the home ground advantage.