mind_philip's right about both Brazil and England there (though I rate England's chances of getting beyond the QFs higher than he does). Re. Brazil, m_p doesn't mention Adriano, who probably should start ahead of Ronaldo these days. Given how many of their best players are with European teams, the fact that the tournament is in Germany shouldn't really be a problem.
Re. England: m_p's also right to point out their lack of possession in the Argentina game. There were periods at 2-1 where they couldn't get close to the ball, and you could argue that the comeback was precipitated, at least in part, by the welter of late Argentinian substitutions. England's big problem in their current make-up is that they seem unable to retain the ball and spend a lot of time either chasing or sitting back, inviting the opposition on (sometimes defending way too deep). If you check the possession stats for Euro 2004, you'll see that the only game where they managed 50% possession was against Croatia. In the q-f it was 61-39 in Portugal's favour. The stats for the world cup 2002 q-f vs Brazil were similar, and less forgivable. Another similar game was the 3-0 win vs Denmark is r2 of the 2002 world cup.
That these three were such different games might suggest I'm making too much out of a coincidence, but the fact remains that England don't dominate football matches at big tournaments, whether through having acheived a comfort zone early (Denmark, Croatia), taking an early lead and inviting the opposition on (Argentina in 2002, France, Portugal), or failing to grasp the initiative in games up for grabs (Sweden, Nigeria, Brazil, all in 2002). This seems just odd given the surfeit of talent they have in the midfield. Maybe it's the coach ..? Certainly it's a combination of never really having found a way to properly accommodate those talents, and having in both Beckham and Gerrard two players who, when things aren't going well, want to do Absolutely Everything Themselves, often counter-productively. And the recent problems with Lampard and Gerrard sharing the middle are well documented.
Possible solutions: on the left, if Ashely Cole gets fit and retains his form, he and Joe Cole would be my choice, with a proper holding midfielder (Parker?) next to Lampard or Gerrard in the centre. Given that Liverpool's recent run of form seems to have coincided with Benitez moving Gerrard more to the right, would it be totally unthinkable to - and stay with me now - drop Beckham?
Contra m_p, I could easily see England overcoming Germany in the second round - in fact, even given their weaknesses, I could see them beating pretty much any of the European teams. None of them, save possibly Ukraine and Holland, are coming into the tournament on convincing form. And none of them have Rooney and Owen. Brazil and Argentina look like the teams to beat, and England have already shown that they can beat one of them.
They could win it.
And having a typically Scottish deep fried chip on each shoulder, you can't imagine how much I'd hate that.