JUNE 16 ― One of the great things about the World Cup is that nobody really knows what will happen.

We know the players, of course. We know that Neymar and Gabriel Jesus could shine for Brazil, that Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling is a potentially excellent pairing for England, and that Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero could wreak havoc for Argentina.

What we don't know, however, is whether they will.

International teams play together so rarely, and have so little continuity from one of their rare meetings to the next, it's almost impossible to predict with any confidence how well the players will fit together.

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Sure, we can look at games like France's opener today against Australia and assume that the European side will have far too much quality for the men from down under to compete.

That certainly should be the case. In terms of talent, the French front three of Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele are probably the most talented forward line in the tournament, and it's only logical that they will be far too good for Australia.

But you never know, because those three gifted stars and their teammates have hardly ever played together before, and nobody has any idea ― even the players themselves ― how well or how quickly they will gel.

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This isn't like club football where teams train together every day and play together twice a week to gain instinctive understanding of how they can combine effectively. At international level, many teams are more or less making it up as they go along, with the result that the success of their endeavours are uncertain.

Further lack of clarity comes once we get through the group stages and into the knockout rounds, where progress or elimination is decided over the course of 90 precarious minutes where a moment of inspiration, a lucky bounce or a poor refereeing decision can prove decisive.

The best team doesn't always win, meaning we can end up with champions like Greece (2004 European Championships), Portugal (2016 European Championships) or Chile (2015 and 2016 Copa America), rather than the sides who look strongest on paper.

So we can say that Germany, Brazil, France and Spain look like the best bets to lift the title, but it's by no means certain that one of those nations will prevail. Belgium, Argentina, Portugal, Colombia and yes maybe even England have hopes of upsetting the odds, and none of them can be ruled out.

My dark horses, however, are Uruguay. The feisty South Americans possess genuine world class quality at both ends of the pitch, with the outstanding central defensive partnership of Atlético Madrid duo José Maria Gimenez and Diego Godin complemented by strike duo Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

The latter was unlucky not to score in their opening game against Egypt on Friday, having a powerful volley brilliantly saved and sending a thumping free kick against the post. In the end the points were secured by a superb late header from Gimenez, and Uruguay will now surely beat Saudi Arabia to secure their progression to the next stage.

In the knockout round they will obviously find it much harder, but with a rock solid defence marshalled by Godin ― the best pure defender in the world, in my view ― while Suarez and Cavani are always ready to pounce at the other end, Uruguay are more than capable of sneaking their way through with a series of 1-0 wins.

Although our attention is naturally drawn to attacking stars, it's unusual for teams to enjoy much success at the World Cup without having the solid base of a strong defence. Germany, for example, only conceded four goals in seven games on the way to winning the tournament four years ago, and Spain allowed just two goals on the way to triumphing in 2010.

Low scoring football is common in the World Cup for the reason mentioned at the start of this article: the lack of familiarity among the players, who don't have enough time to develop the instinctive understanding required for incisive attacking play.

So it is teams like Uruguay, who are capable of keeping a clean sheet against any opponent, who are ideally suited to upsetting bigger name opponents and mounting a serious challenge for the title.

But the beauty of international football is that, really, you never know.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.