Greatest Sporting Event in the World?

[Phantom Lord]

Originally posted by EmpireofVirtue
When you Europeons will understand the World Cup was not an accident ? It proved the End of European domination in that sport. Now you must count on South Korea, Japan, the United States of America or Turkey. It's funny because Europeons always want soccer to be played everywhere and once it's the case, they whine because they worth nothing in it anymore.

At next World Cup, the United States will win. I know people will laugh at me just as they already laughed at me when I was saying the same in 2002. Actually, The United States did better than the UK, France or Argentina last time... so why would I be wrong for next time ?

I think many Europeans were impressed of nations like South Korea, Senegal, the United States and others in recent tournaments (btw, I consider Turkey european). And "European domination" on international level doesn't really exist anyway, because most World Cups in the last 30 years went to South America IIRC.

I think that we have the strongest national leagues here, but the reason is, that clubs in Europe are able to spend so much money.

I don't think that the US will win the next world cup though, because they still lack the experience with big finals that many players of traditional football nations have.

 

[Dell19]

Take away Brazil and Europe would dominate

Cups are always about shocks and they always come round again. Japn and South Korea were the home nations and they need to continue to win and not do a Croatia or a Turkey, where you finish 3rd at the World Cup but then fail to quite live up to expectations in the future.

Its interesting though how the South American nations seem to win overall. Perhaps its because their best players play in Europe and know how we play but we don't really get to see how they play as a team...

 

[JonathanValjean]

Both the Olympics and the World Cup are outstanding international events. Due to the sheer diversity of events, however, I think the Olympics edges out the World Cup. Vote: Olympics

 

[Drewcifer]

Originally posted by Dell19
Take away Brazil and Europe would dominate

Cups are always about shocks and they always come round again. Japn and South Korea were the home nations and they need to continue to win and not do a Croatia or a Turkey, where you finish 3rd at the World Cup but then fail to quite live up to expectations in the future.

Its interesting though how the South American nations seem to win overall. Perhaps its because their best players play in Europe and know how we play but we don't really get to see how they play as a team...

"Take away Brazil" is a pretty big caveat though. I only follow the other Football casually but I have been working with some Brazilians as of late and they make a good case for the supremacy of their Football. And Argentina? Perhaps Europeans are better for playing against South Americans in European club leagues.

Don't believe it when your media tells you that the US is indifferent to the performance of it's national team in the World Cup. In 2002 the matches were on at 2, 4 or 6 in the morning and they were still the highest rated World Cup matches in US history. If the team has a similar performance in Germany's less opposite time zone it will be a major media event and probably the breakout moment for the sport in this country.

That said I still prefer the Olympic Hockey tournement. Many places in the world love hockey and excell at it. The Olympic Gold is the world championship. For those of us who love the sport it is what we look forward to. And it is only one small part of the Olympics.

 

[Håkon]

Originally posted by Dell19
Take away Brazil and Europe would dominate

Riiiight...what happened to Argentina?

USA could have a good team...it's just that when European football fans compare Landon Donovan, the greatest US star, to the likes of Thierry Henry, Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, he falls very short. For a US team to win a FIFA world cup, they need serious amounts of luck, and they need to play better than the sum of their parts.

Also, many Europeans underestimate US because their players play in the MLS - a league of little interest here (I can barely name some teams, thanks to CM). Thus, even though their players might be good, it is very hard to judge because they don't play in the same league as the best players in the world.

 

[Phantom Lord]

Originally posted by Dell19
Take away Brazil and Europe would dominate

And what about Argentina? They're not exactly weaker than Brazil ...

 

[Dell19]

Originally posted by Phantom Lord
And what about Argentina? They're not exactly weaker than Brazil ...

I thought we were talking about WC wins.

Argentina have won the WC twice, oh and btw you both missed out Uruguay... But my point was that if you remove Brazil, then Europe suddenly takes the lead in WC wins because Brazil has won the most...

Or perhaps I think Argentina is part of Europe...

 

[Phantom Lord]

No, what I meant is that Argentina is pretty competitive, even by the standards of european top national teams.

 

[Andrewz]

I'm a great fan of the US Soccer Team and I hope it will do even better in 2006 than it did in 2002 . I don't know any other sport than soccer where 200 countries are running for the qualifications !

World Cup Winners :
Uruguay 1930 : Uruguay
Italy 1934 : Italy
France 1938 : Italy
Brazil 1950 : Uruguay
Switzerland 1954 : Germany
Sweden 1958 : Brazil
Chile 1962 : Brazil
England 1966 : England
Mexico 1970 : Brazil
Germany 1974 : Germany
Argentina 1978 : Argentina
Spain 1982 : Italy
Mexico 1986 : Argentina
Italy 1990 : Germany
United States 1994 : Brazil
France 1998 : France
S. Korea/Japan 2002 : Brazil

Brazil : 5 Victories (58,62,70,94,02)
Germany : 3 Victories (54,74,90)
Italy : 3 Victories (34,38,82)
Argentina : 2 Victories (78,86)
Uruguay : 2 Victories (30,50)
France : 1 Victory (98)
England : 1 Victory (66)

The Americas : 9 Victories
Europe : 8 Victories


I've done that by memory so correct me if you see anything wrong.

PS : The only world cup winner which has never won it at home is actually... Brazil !!

 

[Dell19]

Yes thats why South America have the most wins... Argentina may be competitive but they don't tend to do as well as Brazil and of course in the last WC they were knocked out by England and Sweden. And take away Brazil and it would be 8 - 4 to Europe, which shows how good Brazil are.