Taking a look at the Albion’s World Cup hopefuls

It’s decision time for managers when it comes to selecting their squads for Russia. The worlds biggest tournament is where every player dreams of playing and thankfully two of Albion’s players are fortunate enough to be featured in the preliminary squads.

Maty Ryan will be hoping to cement his place in Australia’s national team, having already featured 42 times for his country since 2012. Jose Izquierdo is another player hoping to feature, having made the preliminary squad for Columbia.

First off, let’s take a look at Ryan. The 2014 competition wasn’t what you’d call spectacular, with 9 goals leaked in 3 games, but a lot of that was down to a particularly weak defence. We can expect much more from Ryan this time around, with the experience of a previous World Cup under his belt and buoyed by Brighton’s Premier League survival. Navigating the group stage and making the last 16 would be a great achievement for Ryan and Australia.

Izquierdo may have a slightly more difficult time making the Columbia squad, but his impressive performances for Brighton this season mean he has to be considered and it seems that José Pékerman agrees with that, having selected him for the provisional squad to go to Russia. Columbia play a friendly against Egypt on June 1st, so this will be his opportunity to impress and cement his place.

If Izquierdo does manage to get a spot on the plane, he has an excellent chance of doing well in Russia. Bookmakers are offering as low as 33-1 for Columbia to win the tournament, but you can boost that to 50-1 with some of the enhanced offers for the World Cup making it a little more appealing to back them.

We sincerely hope that both players make it to Russia this year and indeed, both have an excellent chance. At least if they do both make it, it will give us something else to focus on when England do the inevitable and go out at the group stage yet again.