World Cup 2018 – Schedule, Apps and Predictions

So it is time for World Cup 2018 in Russia and we are all discussing the teams, the kits, the stadiums, the apps and the crowds.

We wonder how many England soccer hooligans are going to be arrested and whether there will be violence against black people and LGBT community – after all this is Russia. But most of all we want to have all the info at our fingertips so that we know how this World Cup is going to play out. And as loyal South African fans, we miss the sound of the Vuvuzelas, Shakira’s Waka Waka and we still wonder what happened to Philip.

A total of 32 teams, each representing a different country will gather in Russia for the next month or so to determine which is the best team in the world. The Group Phase Kick-off is on 14 June 2018 when host country Russia meets Saudi Arabia. The Final, a month later on 15 July in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

The 11 host cities and their 12 venues for the 2018 World Cup are worth getting excited about.

• Kaliningrad
• Kazan
• Moscow
• Nizhny Novgorod
• Rostov-on-Don
• Saint Petersburg
• Samara
• Saransk
• Sochi
• Volgograd
• Ekaterinburg

From all that I’ve read and heard, Russia is eager to impress and it’s making a monumental effort to do so.

The 2018 #WorldCup kicks off here tomorrow 🏟️😍

Get the lowdown on the 🇷🇺Russia 🆚 Saudi Arabia🇸🇦, including expert analysis from our Team Reporters

ℹ️👉 https://t.co/zHYGX75CYv pic.twitter.com/SySWKNv0KH

— FIFA World Cup 🏆 (@FIFAWorldCup) June 13, 2018

Russia World Cup Schedule

First of all we need to look at the schedule and make sure we have it close at hand.  FIFA has done a great job with the schedule and shows match times in your own local time

Mobile Apps for the 2018 World Cup

Well that is easy; we just need to look at the best Apps for the 2018 World Cup.  I’ve downloaded a few and will give my opinion a few days into the tournament

A great place to start it the official FIFA World Cup app which has been launched over 11 million times since the tournament’s Final Draw, and hit a new record on Sunday, with 800,000 launches in a single day.

It is already the No1 free sports app in over 60 countries, including 10 of those represented at Russia 2018: Australia, Argentina, Colombia, Croatia, Iran, France, Mexico, Russia, Switzerland and Spain.

Oh, don’t forget to use the correct flag emoji when you are posting about the Russia World Cup.

Predictions for a World Cup 2018 Winner?

The latest odds have Brazil, Germany, Spain and France as the heavy favorites. In fact, eight teams sit ahead of Euro 2016 champs Portugal. But one thing we know from previous World Cups – the teams on paper don’t always show up on the pitch on match day.  It also seems like a final with Germany and Brazil may be on the cards, maybe France or Spain?

South Africa’s Benni McCarthy who has scored at two World Cup tournaments suggests that the usual suspects like Germany, Spain and Brazil were all possibles but that he would put his money on France.

The FIFA World Cup 2018 only starts tomorrow, so we have a long way to go. For now everybody is an expert. We’ve had a parrots and an octopus predict the winners so we will have to wait and see.