The World Cup quarter-finals kicked off this week and before they did, we looked back at how Liverpool Offside readers voted on who they thought would win it all and which player would win the Golden Ball as player of the tournament in our pre-World Cup survey and then asked who they thought would win now.
Before the tournament kicked off, TLO readers picked Spain to win it all over France—but it was close. Now, it’s not close and it’s France who comes out on top, as the defending champions have reminded
everyone just how good they are. Across the entire network the vote was a little closer, but it was still Spain coming out on top in TLO’s latest SB Nation Reacts! poll, in partnership with FanDuel.
On the Golden Ball front for player of the tournament, TLO readers hadn’t wanted to lock in on any one player before it all kicked off. Now, they’re heavily in on Kylian Mbappe which probably isn’t a surprise given how much they’re in on France to win it all.
Interestingly, though, Mbappe to win Golden Ball trailed France to win it all by 15-points amongst TLO readers. And it was similar for readers across the network, with Mbappe eight-points back there—which allowed Lionel Messi to pip him to top spot despite that the majority of readers network-wide do think France will win it all.
The best read of the numbers suggests that the most common thinking is that France will beat Argentina in the final, but that Messi at least plausibly could still end up winning the Golden Ball while that happens. And, to be honest, that’s an outcome that seems pretty plausible to us.
Hopefully everyone had fun with this, and while the World Cup is winding down, with a little luck maybe we’ll get to take part in another SB Nation Reacts poll before the World Cup comes to a close—and if not hopefully we’ll see you a few times during the season when club football kicks off again.
