e-Football World Cup Spotlight - Belgium

Article by e-Football's Tony Thorne

Click here to follow e-Football on Twitter!

Belgium have, rather quietly it has to be said, built themselves up to a point where they currently sit: dark horses for the World Cup. Their 23-man squad has just been announced for the tournament and, there can be no dispute, the first eleven that Belgium could play rivals any top team in the competition.

But let’s just consider how they got here. Belgium, whose national football team is nicknamed the Red Devils (or “Diables Rouges”) is a small nation of just over 11 million people. The country itself has a strong north/south divide, with the majority of the northern Flanders region speaking Dutch as their primary language with the southern Wallonia region predominantly being French speakers, though there is also a significant population here that class themselves as German speakers. These barriers are easy to break down as school children learn all three languages. They also play the popular national sports, including, of course, football.

Belgian football has certainly had peaks and troughs. As an even smaller nation than they are now prior to the 1980s, Belgium had little to no impression on international football, aside from an impressive 4-4 draw with England at the Swiss World Cup in 1954. Between 1982 and 2002, Belgium managed to qualify for every World Cup, though again made only a slighter bigger impression on the world stage and were often eliminated at the first knock-out stage. Their demise came in the mid-2000s, with an aged squad and unproven youngsters being made light work of for rivals.

In 2008, Belgium entered a football team to the Olympic games in Beijing. National coverage of the team and the event was low, as it often is for football at the Olympics in many countries. However, heads were turned when Belgium took Brazil to within 11 minutes of a creditable draw in their opening group game. The Brazil squad at the tournament consisted of now-established talents such as Real Madrid’s Marcelo, Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva and Manchester United’s Anderson, plus Thiago Silva (now at PSG), Alex Pato (formerly of AC Milan) and the toothy Ronaldinho.

Having established that this team could go places, they went on to defeat China and New Zealand in their group and progress to the first knock-out round, where their opponents were an Italy side containing Rossi, Abate, Marchisio, Criscito and Nocerino. Again, Belgium went beyond expectations and defeated Italy too. They fell to a strong Nigeria side and Brazil again in the Bronze medal play-off, but the message was clear – Belgium were suddenly a side full of promise.

Many of the names in that 2008 squad will be familiar to fans today: Kompany, Vermaelen, Fellaini, Mirallas, Vertonghen and Dembele all featured at that tournament as young men trying to prove themselves.

Fast forward to the 2014 World Cup squad, and all of the above names are alongside two top goalkeepers in Chelsea/Athletico’s Thibaut Courtois and Simon Mignolet of Liverpool, as well as Axel Witsel from Zenit, Chelsea’s other perennial Belgian loan star Romelu Lukaku, Adnan Januzaj of Manchester United and arguably one of the top three players in the Premier League in 2013-14, Eden Hazard.

Belgium qualified unbeaten from their qualification group, winning 8 games and drawing two. Kevin De Bruyne, another player with Chelsea connections, finished as joint top scorer with 4 goals as Belgium walked their group with ease.

Put these pieces together and it’s easy to see how Belgium are being considered a dangerous side to play against. This is added to the fact that they have been handed a favourable draw in Group H at the finals. A group containing Algeria, Russia and South Korea should not be particularly difficult for a side boasting such attacking riches as this.

Their defence may be more strongly tested at the round of 16, as they will probably face either Portugal or Germany, depending on who finishes second in Group G. The defending of Kompany, Vertonghen and Vermaelen will be critical to stopping Cristiano Ronaldo or Mario Götze. A possible quarter-final with Argentina would then be on the cards.

Of course that’s all hearsay, and the route could be drastically altered by just one defeat. But the nation of Belgium has something that they have never had for their football team at the World Cup before: expectation. Build up in the country has been beyond any previous tournament and the phrase “golden generation” has been used to describe their crop of players. But as any England fan will be able to tell them, that tag does not always add up to results in big international tournaments. Having said that, Belgium’s hopes are high and their squad is strong. Let’s see if they live up to the hype.

Main Strength: An Attacking Minded, World-Class First Eleven

Main Weakness: Lack of Experience at Business End of International Competitions

Player to watch: Eden Hazard

Tournament Predicted Finish: Third-Place Play-off / Semi-Finals

© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football