| S.Peelman said: I looked up some stats after the Brazil game, turns out there have only been two times that a non-European or South American team has ever reached the semi-final. The USA in 1930 (!, the very first WC) and South Korea in 2002 in their own country. Neither reached the final after that, and even getting to the quarter final is a rarity for North American, African or Asian (nevermind Oceanian) teams. The difference between them and the top two continents is huge. I'm not surprised at all that every non-European or South American team will be eliminated after today. |
Yep, and this is why I just found people saying other continents would do well this tournament and Europe was overrated to be ridiculous. Like I'm definitely not anti-the other continents. I'd absolutely love it if a different team were to have a very successful run, would've loved to see Japan or Senegal or somebody win it. But I'm also realistic, Europe and South America are such a long way ahead still! Asia surprised me with how well they did this year, and they're still all out already.
It isn't just a team stat thing either, pull up any list of the top 100 players right now and see how much Europe/South America dominate that list. Even the North American, African & Asian countries that do have a world class player, or two, are usually limited to that many. The top European/South American sides have 11+ world class players across the pitch though. It's pretty ridiculous how much depth teams like France and Brazil have.
