Forget March Madness or the College Football Playoffs, the World Cup is the original bracket-buster tournament.While two of the usual suspects typically reach the final, matches from the first game of the tournament through to the showpiece event are prone to underdog victories.In 2022, Saudi Arabia shocked the world by beating eventual champions Argentina 2-1 in the group stage.In 2002, Senegal defeated the holders, France, in a match with deeper resonance for fans in Senegal and across its diaspora, as France had ruled over the West African nation for 300 years. In that same tournament, co-host South Korea defeated Italy with an extra-time “golden goal” before reaching the semi-finals.We could go further back to when the United States shocked England in 1950… but let’s not.Lionel Messi and Argentina lost against Saudi Arabia in 2022 (Tom Jenkins/Getty Images)Anyway, having established that it’s often a fool’s errand to predict results at the World Cup, it would probably make sense for us to steer away from it, right? Right?Well, after the success of our weekly Premier League predictions series run by The Athletic’s Oliver Kay, where he finished third behind The Athletic’s subscribers and a six-year-old child, Wilf (sorry Oli), we’re going against our better judgment to bring it back… for every World Cup matchday.Throughout the tournament, my colleague Andy Jones and I (Elias Burke) will be providing our so-called expert opinion to help you better understand who you’re watching and what to expect. We’ll bring you our predictions for each game, but also tell you which players to keep an eye on, why you should be watching and how risky the game is to predict.During the Premier League season, Andy covers Liverpool, where he has built a deep understanding of the club and what it takes to win at the elite level, while I cover Tottenham Hotspur, which, well, has involved a lot more losing. Fortunately, our clubs have 20 players combined at the World Cup, and we have devoured far too much international football from around the globe to prepare for this challenge.Bad news for us, great news for you: The Athletic’s subscribers are returning for the World Cup edition to kick our ass. We will have a guest subscriber each day go up against us.As well as us ‘experts’ and the subscribers, young Wilf (fresh from his second-place finish in the Premier League predictions) will be taking part, as will ‘Algo’, a shiny new algorithm from The Athletic, making its computerised debut during the 2026 World Cup.And finally, making his predictions debut is Stanley, a one-year-old whippet.If you would like to be our guest subscriber for a day during this tournament, please follow the instructions in this article.If you were a fan of the Premier League series run by Oli, it will be very similar, with a few minor differences: