The Shift of Power: Football’s Subtle Revolution
Football is a strange game. Along with being strange, the sport has a level of humor to it as well, what with the many ways in which it can bring teams to shame and superstars to fame.
12 years ago in France, there were 11 European teams in the last sixteen of the FIFA World Cup. Eight years ago in Korea & Japan, there were 9 European teams in, at the last sixteen stage of the tournament. And four years ago in Germany, there were 10 European teams in the FIFA World Cup 2006 Round of Sixteen stage. Out of a total of 16, 10 were European. Another revolution in football can be observed with respect to the fact that out of the last four European players of the year, three have been South American i.e Ronaldinho, Kaka, Messi. The exception being the Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo.
These statistics in themselves tell a massive story; European football gets worse as the years go by. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, there were only 6 European teams in Round of Sixteen. Another point to note is that big European names even missed out on qualification, teams such as Croatia who were semi finalists in 1998, Russia, who were semi-finalists in Euro 2008 along with Turkey, missed out on spots in the finals.
South America is now the emerging foot-balling continent. With four of the last eight teams in 2010 FIFA World Cup belonging to South America, it seems that a change is on the cards as far as FIFA’s allotted places for the World Cup are concerned.
The 2014 World Cup is already heading to South America and will take place in Brazil. With Brazil looking as favorites to win the present on-going competition as well, it might turn out to be a favorable position for them because they can very well be defending their world cup crown in their own country. Something that will happen for the very first time, if it does.
It is a very real possibility that Uruguay might take on Brazil in the semi-finals of the world cup this year. After all, both the teams are favorites to defeat their opponents in the quarter finals as Uruguay take on Ghana and Brazil takes on Netherlands. These ties might decide the shift of power itself, as Netherlands are a European powerhouse on their own and Brazil are a South American footballing power.
Another key battle between both the continents might lie in the Argentina vs. Germany tie as well. Both of these sides met in Germany at the same stage four years ago as well. That match turned out to be a draw after extra time; therefore penalties were required to decide the winner. Germany eventually won the shoot-out. This time around Lionel Messi is leading the Argentineans much like Maradona who is their coach this time around, did it in 1986. Germans are looking good too after beating European rivals England in the round of sixteen but Argentina have the X-factor with Messi and co.
Paraguay take on Spain as well, which is the less publicized of the quarter final clashes. However one must under no circumstances write off Paraguay who have been organized so far in the world cup. They were after all winners of their group, a group which contained the World Champions Italy. Paraguay are very capable of pulling a surprise win in this tie.
There is also a different side to this quarter final round, it can very well be that European teams win their three matches and make it three out of the last four teams from Europe. That would not do justice to the whole scenario as European teams bar Germany and Spain have been dreadful in this tournament, with the likes of Italy and France failing to progress from their groups. Italy and France were after all finalists of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
It should be recognized that a shift of power is under way in International football. The likes of Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile signal their coming of age finally, the former two are significantly prepared to rise to expectations and increase the threat generated from their continent which has long been dominated by only Argentina and Brazil.
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