It must be a record. Of the 13 UEFA sides at the World Cup, (who themselves make almost half of the World Cup field) over half of them have failed to make it out of the group stage!

Of those, only Netherlands, Belgium and France can say they made it through comfortably, while Greece and Switzerland (despite the latter being aided of a laughably lopsided draw thanks to the skewed ranking system) had to leave it late to get through after earlier pantsings.

The Germans I watched their Ghana match with were relieved to secure a late draw to say the least, and nobody could possibly say their three points were assured over the full 90 minutes against the US in their 1-0 win.

All the rest are headed home: Russia deservedly so after tonight's limp performance against against Algeria I just witnessed here in St. Petersburg, following their inability to recover from Akinfeev's fail against Korea. Croatia, to be fair, had a very tough group, but they were the only European team, so in some people's minds they surely should have been favourites, right?

Bosnia also failed to qualify in a group with only non-European competition, and Portugal, who only just got a late draw against the US, are going home while the latter nation derided as "thinking soccer is just the thing you pick your daughter up from" is still in Brazil.

As for England, Spain and Italy: :lol:

With the growing economies and middle classes in the populous developing world, and the professionalism of football along with it, could 2014 be the year they look back on as the beginning of a new era?

Edited by paladisious: 27/6/2014 08:31:22 AM

11/10 thread.

Way better than Davstar's shit.

-PB

Yep, as was mentioned a few times in the AFC thread - very poor performance by the UEFA sides. They've done nothing to kill off the idea that they cant perform in South America.

A few would surely have to question the wisdom of basing themselves in the cold south while playing most of their games in the heat and humidity of the north.

Feel sorry for Bosnia. Genuinely dudded for their disallowed, actually onside, goal.

Would have liked to see them progress.

Good thread topic and good points made.=d>

It's only to be expected in a tournament played in South America that some European teams will falter.

I think the only real surprises are Spain and Italy not progressing.

CAF too.

Probably true, but England would be expected to beat Uruguay more times than lose to them.

Not quite sure how CAF under performed. It's their best tournament ever in terms of teams getting through the group stage, First time they've ever had 2 teams make it through.

Concacaf is much the same, first time they've ever had 3 teams qualify.

I wholeheartedly disagree with that, especially if the match is played in South America.

Imo England wouldn't be expected to beat any top 10 nation.

England have often been ranked in the top 10 , have they not?

Yep and I honestly wouldn't expect them to beat another top 10 nation more times than they lost to them.

Agreed. I had Italy and Uruguay tipped to go through. Didn't think England had much of a chance

Any thoughts on the structured possession of SK not being able to breakdown an already qualified, down to 10 men Belgium?

I would say top 20 nations.

Russia might consider themselves a tad hard done by, especially vs Algeria since their keeper was blinded by a lazer moments before Algeria equalized.



Capello's fuming.

That aside, the Ruskies have been poor. Must be said. Was hoping for better from them. Why can't we have drawn them. :(

Him being shit it what cost them, not that laser. England probably would have struggled to beat Russia anyway.

Really...?:lol:

I'm contemplating doing a thread on it.

I might start it, if I don't have enough info, I'll return to your question here.

England have now played Uruguay 11 times, and won only 3 of those matches.

Interestingly, the European nations have done no worse this time round than they did four years ago in South Africa. Until 2010, they- without fail -had at least nine teams in the Round of 16, and most often ten. One could argue that the two most recent World Cups have seen poor European performances because they've both been played outside of Europe, but the continent's teams seemed to have no such problems in 1986 (Mexico), 1994 (USA) or 2002 (Japan/Korea). It will be really interesting to see how European teams perform in Russia in 2018- that World Cup will probably tell us whether the last couple of World Cups are outliers or if they reflect a long-term power shift away from Europe.

I've put together some charts regarding the number of teams from each continent reaching the Last 16 since it was introduced in 1986.

Good work.

I'm gobsmacked.

European teams always struggle in the americas.
7/13 qualifiers eliminated in Brazil 2014.
7/13 qualifiers eliminated in South Africa 2010.
4/14 qualifiers eliminated in Germany 2006.
6/15 qualifiers eliminated in Korea/Japan 2002.
4/15 qualifiers eliminated in France 1998.

European teams perform significantly better in Europe.

Last 2 world cups have been one by Europeans, regardless wtf does this have to do with Australia?

Why do i care if the European nations are doing well or not so well?

We are part of Asia

Go crawl back in your cave that hinders the beasts of the world and chant ur KKK shit you inbreed fuck!

BTW the 2 favourites to win this world cup are Holland & France

Edited by Davstar: 28/6/2014 07:39:40 PM

:lol: who says Holland and France are the two favourites?

AFC > UEFA

A shame no AFC nation qualified in 2006 as it would of been the only WC where every confed would of been represented in the last 16.

Prior to last night sports bet had France, Holland and Arg as the favourites...

Pretty simple IMO. The Dutch, French and Germans have tried to attack, and have been successful.

Other European and Asian teams have played slow, boring and defensive, and got knocked out (or will get knocked out this round).