This is the World Cup of the press. It will be defined by who chases the opponent’s heels best. Teams from the Americas, Africa, and Asia are best prepared to exploit opponents forced forward in the heat.

A frantic chase in a hot climate favors the team used to that climate.

The team that makes the fewest mistakes in their own half will win, but perfection is harder in sticky humidity, where the ball moves faster than you ever could. You have to get it into the other half of the field.

The heat will slow the pace, but this is not the World Cup to play out from the back.

The quality gap is closing between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti has lit a fire under their press. The moment they lose the ball, at least two players lunge at it. Brazil lacked that fire in previous campaigns. Their friendlies had a siege mentality.

You need pressure, then a central player drifting in from the wing, like Julián Quiñones or Lionel Messi. Europe’s hope is players like Rayan Cherki, Michael Olise, Florian Wirtz, Jamal Musiala, and Arda Güler. But like Brazil, they need that siege mentality when they lose the ball.

Mexico are the same. Look at their first goal of the World Cup: pressure high, cut off the two wide passes, allow the central pass because they have a zonal player waiting, then collapse, force a mistake, a wrong touch, and score. Their second goal came from a tackle on the halfway line.

You need someone thinking about how to be different because that is all the South American teams do. They do not have same guardrails when they lose the ball.

The transition between zonal and man-marking for the South American teams and Mexico is aggressive and fluid. They will always have someone waiting to surprise the man receiving in the center of the pitch.

Then there is Japan, the outlier with precise, measured rotations to escape man-to-man marking. A team with guardrails like Spain, but with more flexibility due to how they shift between formations.

I would be surprised if this World Cup were not filled with upsets and not won by a team from the Americas, Africa, or Asia, particularly Brazil or Japan.