To make the World Cup interesting, you have to hedge your bets, especially in the group stages. If you follow one team, you’re only going to watch three games every few days. But you’ve got to follow the whole tournament. So, pick a few teams that you like and a few teams that you hate.*

* Hate is a strong word, it’s more like teams that you like to see lose. I would like to see Brazil and Germany lose because they always win. I want to see Uruguay lose because I hate Luiz Suarez. And I want to see Mexico lose because they’re the U.S.’s biggest rival.

So, as always I will be supporting the ever disappointing English but I’ll also be watching Iceland (a nation of 330,000 people in the World Cup, that’s insane), Senegal (purely because of Sadio Mane), Denmark (solely because of Christian Eriksen), and Belgium.

I’m actually actively rooting for Belgium and hoping they’ll do well this tournament. You remember Belgium, right? They were the team that embarrassed the United States in the round of 16 last World Cup. When Romelu Lukaku stepped on the field, he just looked such a class above us that I knew we were in trouble. And we were.

So, why support Belgium?

Three reasons.

Belgium is kind of cool

I have to be honest, supporting Belgium is just off brand enough to appeal to my inner hipster. In my mind, this is a country known for beer and chocolate, In Bruges, and the classic line in Singles where Cliff Poncier says of his band Citizen Dick, “a big record just broke in Belgium.”

Sure, I could support France but that’s a little basic, don’t you think?* I’d prefer a country with two official languages and a history of Flemish art. That’s just how I like my soccer teams.

* I actually want to see France do well, I like Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante (and even Antoine Griezmann).

Spurs players

I initially became interested in Belgium because Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderwerald, and Moussa Dembele all play for Spurs (at least for now, two of them will probably be gone by next year). Nacir Chadli used to play for Spurs and while he wasn’t a star, I remember him netting a few great goals while he played for them. Those players made me aware that Belgium is currently fielding a golden generation of players.

Speaking of which…

Golden Generation

Every now and then a “golden generation” emerges where a country is just gifted with a bunch of talented players that are in the same age range. Belgium is in Western European nation, so, Belgians have a natural competence at soccer but I wouldn’t say they have ever been a powerhouse. Their most famous professional team is Anderlecht, which rarely makes waves in European competitions, and I would be hard pressed to name a legendary Belgian footballer.

But these days there are several world class Belgian players. Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, and the aforementioned Romelu Lukaku are all stars in the Premier League. Plus they feature two goal keepers for Chelsea and Liverpool, Thibaut Courtois and Simon Mignolet, respectively. This is a solid squad. I don’t know much about Roberto Martinez’s style as a manager but from what I’ve read the players seem to be responding to him.

They were knocked out in the quarters by Argentina last World Cup, which is respectable. But in Euros ’16, they lost to Wales, which is, well, look, it’s fine but it’s not great.

So, Belgium have some redeeming to do and they’re star players are only getting better. The question is, can the become a team that is greater than the sum of its players, like Germany, or a team comprised of individual stars that never seem to gel, like England?

Also, Belgium and England are in the same group. That will be an interesting game when they meet.

Two days before this whole thing kicks off…