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No more waiting for the World Cup ⚽️ 🏆 🏟️

At last, soccer/football fans from around the world get to enjoy the most exciting sporting event in existence. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is finally underway.

32 teams gather for a fierce competition to see which international squad is king.

^{Take a look at which teams qualified this year:}

If you're as excited as I am, then you probably are already participating in @hivebuzz's World Cup Contest. If you haven't heard about it yet then check out their blog post explaining the rules:

@hivebuzz/wc2022

It's pretty simple. You just send 1 HIVE to @hivebuzz.pool to enter the contest. Then check the @hivebuzz account before each match to make a bet on which team you think will win.

Luckily, for us on Hive our upvote counts as our bet and we don't actually have to risk any money to have a chance to win these awesome prizes.

The Group Stage has some pretty exciting matchups. It is during this period when groups of four will compete to find the #1 and #2 teams out of their group which will move on to the Knockout Stage.

As you can see with this mock bracket, there is some pretty huge potential for insane matchups to occur all throughout this year's World Cup.

My three favorite players are all making an appearance for their country at the World Cup this year. Messi/Argentina, Ronaldo/Portugal, and Neymar/Brazil all three look to finally win their first World Cup.

It's not all good news though. Some of the world's greatest players have been ruled out of the World Cup due to injury. In fact, the 2022 Ballon d'Or winner Karim Benzema will be out for France. Another missing factor is Ballon d'Or runner-up Sadio Mané, who will unable to play for Senegal.

You may remember that France won the 2018 World Cup. This year France may be without a few of their best players, but I wouldn't count them out entirely since they still have Kylian Mbappé to lead their squad.

Brazil looks to be the most stacked squad out of all the teams. Neymar Jr and the company could bring home their country's first World Cup since 2002. I think many of us will remember the magic of that year with players like Ronaldinho, Kaká, and Ronaldo showing the world their skills.

Neymar has been my favorite player since I first discovered him on Santos FC around 2010. I would choose their club to face my friends in the FIFA video game back in college. They always wondered how I was able to beat their more popular squads with a smaller Brazilian team. It was all thanks to Neymar at a very young age.

Ronaldo is another guy who I've always loved watching. He has been around for so many years and is very well known by now. Especially since there has been a lot of controversy recently about his time with his current team Manchester United. It will be interesting to see if he can put the drama behind him and lead his country Portugal deep into the World Cup. Portugal's team may not be quite as powerful as somebody like Brazil/France/Argentina, but they still pack a punch. Ronaldo has claimed that if they win the World Cup this year, he will retire immediately following.

Lionel Messi and Argentina are currently on an international game win streak of 36 matches. It almost seems like nobody stands a chance against their dominance, but we all know that anything can happen during the World Cup. If Argentina manages to win it all, this could be their first World Cup since 1986. Messi would love to add this to his list of accolades more than anything else I'm sure.

Three of the best players in the world all play for PSG outside of international play. I'm of course talking about Mbappé, Neymar, and Messi. Although they are pretty unstoppable together, some of them will have to lose at some point during the World Cup. Many wish to see these players face each other during the Knockout Stage, I know I do.

Messi and Ronaldo both have some pretty impressive stats. They are so close to each other in terms of what they've been able to do on the pitch. However, they are two totally different players. Messi is small and lightning fast. While Ronaldo is tall, strong, and also quite skillful. If these two manage to face off, you can bet that all football fans in the world will be watching.

Neymar versus Mbappé is another matchup that would surely turn many heads. These are just some of the biggest names featured during this World Cup. Every single match is going to be worth watching though.

As for my predictions...

I think and hope that either Argentina or Brazil will win the 2022 World Cup. It would be amazing to see the two teams play each other at some point since they are by far my two favorite international squads.