Who has been keeping track? I have seen most of the games (wasn't able to see a couple in full-length because of work), but so far it is shaping to be quite a great one!

The confederations cup is basically a teaser for the 32-team world cup that always comes a year later in the form of an 'all-star' tournament of sorts for the 6 champions of the continental tournaments (UEFA Cup, Africa Cup, AFC Cup, CONCACAF, Copa America, OFC Cup) + the host of the next world cup + the winner of the previous world cup.

This year the countries that are included are:

Russia (hosts of 2018 World Cup)
Germany (winner of 2014 World Cup)
Portugal (winner of UEFA Cup) - still believe France deserved to win. No, wait. Iceland did! :p
Cameroon (winner of Africa Cup)
New Zealand (winner of OFC Cup)
Chile (winner of Copa America)
Mexico (winner of CONCACAF)
Australia (winner of AFC Cup)

Here are how the groups were seperated:

Group A:
Russia
Mexico
Portugal
New Zealand

Group B:
Germany
Australia
Cameroon
Chile

Here are the matches that have already been played (With results:

Group A:
Russia 2 - New Zealand 0
Mexico 2 - Portugal 2
Portugal 1 - Russia 0
Mexico 2 - New Zealand 1

Group B:
Germany 3 - Australia 2
Chile 2 - Cameroon 0

Today was a pretty wild day - particularly with the Mexico vs New Zealand match. New Zealand scored their first goal in a Confederations Cup since 2003, and it looked like they were going to win, but then Mexico (somewhat) returned to form during the second half to snatch the lead and they ended up winning 2-1. Besides just the significance of the match, the New Zealanders were aggressive af. Even leading to basically a full on gang-fight during over-time. The referee himself couldn't handle the situation so more people had to be involved to break it up. It was pretty intense. I believe 3 yellow-cards were given in just the last 3 minutes alone, haha. It was a pretty wild match.

But despite the efforts - New Zealand is now out of the tournament because they have lost 2 matches and there is no way they can get enough points at this point to progress to the semi-finals. :(

Tomorrow is Germany vs Chile which should be an amazing match! 2 soccer giants right there! <3

I'm still rooting for the underdogs as well (Cameroon and Australia), they are going to be going up against each other tomorrow, whoever wins out of those 2 could potentially make a deep underdog run if done right. Australia played really well against Germany despite losing, which shows a lot of promise for tomorrow. I always want the soccer triangle of Cameroon-Ghana-Senegal to do really well due to their tragic backstories within the world cups. So whichever one wins out of Australia or Cameroon I will be rooting for them to make it past the group stage.

Honest predictions though: Portugal and Mexico proceed from Group A - Germany and Chile proceed from Group B. But we'll see!

The games have been pretty good so far. Mexico and Chile have the two best teams in the tournament, so I could see either one of them winning it all, with the edge going to Chile.

I discount Germany, because of all the injuries and all the people they've left off this squad to heal up after the long club season. Mexico and Chile are more at full strength. Portugal is also Ronaldo + ok people, so they likely won't advance out of the knockout stage.

spindoctor02 @ 21/6/2017 16:38

The games have been pretty good so far. Mexico and Chile have the two best teams in the tournament, so I could see either one of them winning it all, with the edge going to Chile. I discount Germany, because of all the injuries and all the people they've left off this squad to heal up after the long club season. Mexico and Chile are more at full strength. Portugal is also Ronaldo + ok people, so they likely won't advance out of the knockout stage.

I'd say Mexico and Portugal are the two best teams there, Portugal is a lot more than just Ronaldo today and Mexico can form a ridiculously strong squad.
Chile close behind the other two, since Germany has a young B squad.
Other teams are pretty meh.

Portugal would have to get no points vs New Zealand (not happening) and Mexico would need to lose with more goals against them than than Portugal vs NZ or tie vs Russia.

I don't think Cameroon or AUS have a chance to get out of the B group even though Germany have a B squad.

Yeah, ofcourse on first glance most people would naturally think 'oh, Germany, four-time world cup champions, they will win this entire thing without a doubt', but they do indeed have their b-squad on-hand and had a visibly difficult time winning against Australia.

Plus - Portugal, Chile AND Mexico all have their strongest teams in years! But even with a b-squad Germany, I don't think Cameroon or Australia can get out of group B alive. Germany won't make it to the finals though. I mean, they omitted Ozil, Muller, Boateng, Kroos, Gomez and more, those are all guys I basically grew up watching on-screen (others included like Schweinsteiger, Klose, Ballack, Lahm, Podolski, etc who have ofcourse retired from international games, but just bringing home the 'growing-up-with' aspect), haha. They are clearly more experienced and putting them on the field with a mixture of newcomers can work out well, but all newbies is risky if you are indeed going for the win. The way Germany is doing it is good for 'experimental purposes' to see what works best for the future (mainly for the upcoming world cup - as their star-players will be back for that), but it won't win you the current tournament, not without a great, great challenge to overcome! <- Still don't see why they wouldn't take that approach during the qualifiers of the world cup though. They don't have a ridicuously difficult group where they are in desperate need for points (unlike Spain and Italy being in the same damn group).

Excited to see how they'll play against Chile tomorrow!

Both matches today turned out 1-1.

Current groups standings after 8 games (2 games per country)

Group A:
Mexico 4
Portugal 4
Russia 3
New Zealand 0

Group B:
Chile 4
Germany 4
Australia 1
Cameroon 1

Yeah, at this point, with only 4 matches to go and the points being such a clear difference, it's pretty apparent that Portgual, Chile and Germany will for sure go to the semi-finals. Australia, Cameroon and New Zealand are basically out. Only real question mark is the Russia vs Mexico match. Mexico on paper has the better team, but they had a pretty difficult time (especially in the latter half) against New Zealand whilst Russia just stomped through NZ. So Russia can still create an upset especially on home soil. Excited to see that match!!