By Pasquali - 14 Jun 2022 8:34 AM
We played against Honduras last WC playoff and because we had some questionable results against asian teams, many people said that Honduras was going to win as they are from a 'better confederation'. The same thing happened this WC cycle. By now, can we at least give Asia some respect?
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By Enzo Bearzot - 12 Dec 2022 8:47 PM
+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+x+xSeriously what are you on about - don't get me wrong I love for the Asian sides to improve and really contest WC's deeper but its not there yet and IF we/they ever do it will because most of the players are cutting the mustard in good euro leagues full stop period. Ofcourse a WC is awesum to watch, NT's lift no matter they are top or bottom thats what wearing your countries shirt does to any sportman/woman. Spanners in the works are the wonderful theatrics of tournament football. Beloved Europe will always prevail because its 2nd nature/culture be it being knocked out or not qualify like Italy, till we can compete then I'll sing koombiyah. Do you think that many European countries would be disappointed that they have struggled to perform outside Europe in World Cups, given their world rankings prior? We've now had 3 out of the last 4 World Cups held outside Europe. Which UEFA countries have performed equal to, or better than, their world rankings prior to these WCs, outside Europe in the three World Cups - starting with South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022? Netherlands have reached the last 16 and better in each of those tournaments. Germany excelled in 2010 and 2014, but bombed out in Qatar. Have France, Portugal,Switzerland, Croatia, England ( I think they were knocked out in the group phase in 2010) made it out of every group stage? By the Way Riquelme's laces, LFC is a passionate supporter of Aus football. He is no Eurosnob! D2, without looking at placings v rankings, I know off the top of my head that the last 4 World Cups (06, 10, 14, 18) have been won by European countries, and 7 of the 8 finalists were European countries. It is still possible that the two finalists this year will come from Europe. I wouldn't say that European countries as a group have struggled to perform outside Europe, especially considering that until 2010 a European team had never won outside Europe. There have been individual countries that have performed worse than expected, as always happens (Italy and Brazil 1966, England not qualifying in 74, 78 and 94, Spain pretty much always until 2010, etc). Of course the welcome rise in non-European/South American countries in the last 30 years has also been a factor in reducing the number of European/South American countries in the knockout stages as well. The country that I suspect has probably really struggled to perform in the last few WC's, considering result against pre-tournament FIFA ranking, would be Brazil. Doesn't a European not winning outside of Europe until 2010 show that European nations as a group have struggled? This is EIGHTY years of failure, not one or two World Cups and that with enormous resources and players available. What that shows and what this World Cup shows is just how mentally weak the Europeans are when they don't have the home court advantage, the home court crowd and the home court refereeing All of them England, France, Italy Netherlands,Spain, Portugal- but not the Cro's- have at various times shat the bed when they didn't have those advantages. Even the Germans, renowned for their mentality have crapped themselves. If you read Decentric's post I was responding to, he was talking about the last 4 WC's, 3 of which have been held outside Europe. I was responding with this as the context, not all WC's since 1930. But you're factually incorrect: TWO the last four world Cups were held in UEFA: Germany 2006 and Russia 2018. That's a massive home ground advantage to UEFA. A Euro nation won both of those, surprise, surprise. And even if you were factually correct I still don't agree bringing up the fact Europe hadn't won until 2010 supports what you're claiming. European teams are mentally weak when things are not tipped in their favour. Yeah, whatever mate. Again, look at the post from Decentric, he is referring to the last 4 including this one. But I'm not responding to what he posted. I'm responding to this. +x+x+xSeriously what are you on about - don't get me wrong I love for the Asian sides to improve and really contest WC's deeper but its not there yet and IF we/they ever do it will because most of the players are cutting the mustard in good euro leagues full stop period. Ofcourse a WC is awesum to watch, NT's lift no matter they are top or bottom thats what wearing your countries shirt does to any sportman/woman. Spanners in the works are the wonderful theatrics of tournament football. Beloved Europe will always prevail because its 2nd nature/culture be it being knocked out or not qualify like Italy, till we can compete then I'll sing koombiyah. Do you think that many European countries would be disappointed that they have struggled to perform outside Europe in World Cups, given their world rankings prior? We've now had 3 out of the last 4 World Cups held outside Europe. Which UEFA countries have performed equal to, or better than, their world rankings prior to these WCs, outside Europe in the three World Cups - starting with South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Qatar 2022? Netherlands have reached the last 16 and better in each of those tournaments. Germany excelled in 2010 and 2014, but bombed out in Qatar. Have France, Portugal,Switzerland, Croatia, England ( I think they were knocked out in the group phase in 2010) made it out of every group stage? By the Way Riquelme's laces, LFC is a passionate supporter of Aus football. He is no Eurosnob! D2, without looking at placings v rankings, I know off the top of my head that the last 4 World Cups (06, 10, 14, 18) have been won by European countries, and 7 of the 8 finalists were European countries. It is still possible that the two finalists this year will come from Europe. I wouldn't say that European countries as a group have struggled to perform outside Europe, especially considering that until 2010 a European team had never won outside Europe. There have been individual countries that have performed worse than expected, as always happens (Italy and Brazil 1966, England not qualifying in 74, 78 and 94, Spain pretty much always until 2010, etc). Of course the welcome rise in non-European/South American countries in the last 30 years has also been a factor in reducing the number of European/South American countries in the knockout stages as well. The country that I suspect has probably really struggled to perform in the last few WC's, considering result against pre-tournament FIFA ranking, would be Brazil. Edit: Just looked up Brazil's pre-tournament ranking for last 5 WC's 2006 - 1 2010 - 1 2014 - 3 2018 - 2 2022 - 1 Two of those "last" four World Cups you mention were played in Europe. You've selected a period to make a point and it doesn't. As much as I enjoy a good argument, I’ll take Mark Twain’s advice on arguing with idiots and leave this one. Google it if you aren’t familiar with it.
Or play chess with a pigeon, you know how that one goes?
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