Germany

Last August, we delved into Neymar’s absurd $265 million transfer to Paris Saint-Germain by comparing it to Amine Harit’s own transfer from Nantes to Schalke 04 for $9.5 million. The question, in essence, was how could the Brazilian star possibly be 28x more expensive than the precocious Moroccan?

Germany manager Joachim Low announced his preliminary, 27-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup today — a number that will need to be trimmed to 23 before Die Mannschaft open play against Mexico on June 17. 

A 99-year stay in Germany’s top flight (including a place in the Bundesliga since its foundation in 1963) was brought to a dramatic end for Hamburger SV on Saturday afternoon after the club’s 2-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach was rendered meaningless by Wolfsburg’s win against Cologne on the final match day.  

With very few exceptions throughout the history of the FIFA World Cup, the vaunted group of death stigma has largely followed a self-same pattern: two extremely strong European nations and two heavy hitters from other confederations.

In 2014, we had two candidates for the group of death, both exhibiting the aforementioned makeup. 

In Group B, Spain, the Netherlands, Chile and Australia just battered each other, kicking la Furia Roja to the curb despite their status as the defending world champions.