That's why 3 of the final 4 teams were European in South Africa. In 2002 WC in Asia 2 out of the 4 SF were European teams. I suspect SA teams to do well and for European teams to flounder at this WC.
However, as upset as I was about Rossi and his decision, I still don't consider him a "traitor" like some other people would. In order for him to be a traitor, he must have been on our side to begin with. He was never on our side to begin with, he was always going to play for Italy, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Now Subotic on the other hand....
I think some people could reasonably argue that someone being born in the USA would/could by default be considered "on the USA's side" in some real/expected sense.
So Hageland is considered a traitor because he plays for Norway even though he was born in Texas? I mean, the fact that he was born here IS his only connection I could see why people would be upset over Rossi considering he was born here and spent the first 10 or so years of his life here, but he trained in Italy, had parents that were Italian immigrants (IIRC), and heck, his name even sounds Italian! He never played for any of our youth programs and was never in our system. Rossi can be labeled many things: traitor is not one of them.