Prepare for a Brazil vs. Spain World Cup final on July 13.
That's the word from Bloomberg Sports, who project the defending World Cup champions and the host country will face off to decide the winner of the 2014 World Cup (for the record, they are predicting Brazil will win 1-0).
While they project Mexico will advance from Group A along with the hosts, they do not think the USMNT will get out of the Group of Death, as Germany and Portugal will represent Group G in the knockout stages. In fact, Bloomberg Sports says Mexico will be the only CONCACAF team to get out of their group, as both Honduras and Costa Rica have been given the lowest chance in their respective groups.
The predictions are based on 100,000 simulations for every game throughout the tournament. Based on that, the US are given the third-best chance to make it to the knockout rounds in their group, though they are given a solid 30 percent chance to advance. They are given a five percent chance to make it to the semifinals, and a 0.5 percent chance of winning it all -- not great odds, but not the longest among the field, either, as five teams have been given a 0.1 percent chance of winning the tournament.
In addition to Spain and Brazil, the projected semifinalists are Germany and Argentina, meaning there aren't any real surprises by that stage of the competition.
The notable surprises, at least based on prior performances, are that Greece will advance from Group C, over Ivory Coast and Japan, and Uruguay, semifinalists in 2010, will not advance from Group D, with England and Italy progressing from that group.
