(Image source from: Germany)
It's out! Germany and Uruguay are the clear favorites for Brazil 2014.
Sports data analysts Opta has pored down last season's statistics of Europe's top five leagues in England, Spain, France, Italy and Germany to provide us a much-valuable insight into who would lift the World Cup on July 13.
And their analysis reveal that both Germany and Uruguay have come up with a "Dream Team" of players to watch out for in Brazil FIFA 2014.
"The 11 was devised by looking at a range of stats for each player in each position," Duncan Alexander, head of UK content at Opta, said.
"Opta collect more than 250 categories and record about 2,000 data points in each match that’s analysed, but we have a range of tools that allow us to easily filter players by attribute and performance."
Besides the usual favorites of Yaya Toure, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the players to root for in the FIFA Brazil includes two in-form players from Germany and Uruguay.
Germany is betting big on their accomplished captain Philipp Lahm, who posted a passing accuracy of 92 percent in the Bundesliga, passing balls to Marco Reus. The Borussia Dortmund midfielder made the statistical team through having a direct involvement in 40 goals in all competitions this season.
Uruguay’s Group D opponents like Italy, Costa Rica and England have to be careful of their formidable centre back Diego Godin.
"There is an element of subjectivity when choosing any group of players," admits Alexander, whose company put the team together for bookmaker William Hill.
"But by utilising categories that we know professional clubs value, this team should be the most effective choice based on recent performance levels."
The top XI players to watch out in the upcoming FIFA are:
Goalkeeper: Thibaut Courtois (Belgium)
Defenders: Philipp Lahm (Germany), Diego Godin (Uruguay), Giorgio Chiellini (Italy), Leighton Baines (England)
Midfielders: Arturo Vidal (Chile), Marco Reus (Germany), Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)
Forwards: Luis Suarez (Uruguay), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
AW: Suchorita Choudhury
