it's probably just a coincidence, but it is kinda weird how the CC winning (powerhouse) team always a finds a way to mess up the following year when they were favorites Can Germany break the "curse" if they go on and win this tournament? we'll see
it's like saying the last 3 Europe winners flopped in the GS in the next WC. France 1998-GS exit 2002 Italy 2006-GS exit 2010 Spain 2010-GS exit 2014 does anyone think Germany will flop in the GS.
That's another thing I've noticed... I highly doubt something like that will happen to Germany though, they've never been that bad
Hey, while we mustn't be naive enough to consider racism in football over, there's another very possible explanation: Big teams get the calls. We see this every year in tournaments like the Champions League, and I doubt Racism is playing a mayor roll in all the questionable calls that Madrid and Barcelona get.
This happens in all sports. Referees are only human and they know subconsciously that they get a lot more flak for making some mistakes that see Korea defeating Spain than they would if they make a few mistakes that see Spain defeating Korea.
For the record I have not denied racism in football. In fact it is still pretty obvious and prevalent, I just don't think that it is fair to put all perceived referee biases under the umbrella of racism, when there are other factors at play such as not wanting to card in the first minutes, helping the local team (everyone's surely benefited of this one at one point or another) or as the previous poster mentioned, simply biased against the bigger "blockbuster" nations... and to prove it I just mentioned I could go back and find poor calls against us in all our world cup appearances. Should I say refs are racists towards our brown players as well? Brazil have plenty of black and brown players, yet they are still the most successful football nation in the world. Was Pele just a physical specimen? Or is he still widely considered one of the best, if not THE best player ever? At the end of the day, a bad call will always happen to every team at some point or another, VAR will decrease this somewhat, hopefully, but it will not eliminate mistakes. A team has to be mentally ready to overcome bad calls against them IMO, because it's gonna happen no matter what.
If there's a logical explanation, I'd argue that Confed Cup success blinds the coach to changes that must be made if the squad is to compete for the World Cup (case in point: Felipão going all-in on 2014 Fred expecting his 2013 output ).
The reason bigger teams tend to get more calls in their favour is simply a statistical one. Top teams attack more, have more situations in the box and often more posession. As a result the statistical probability for getting free kicks, penalties, corner kicks etc. increases. And yes, that includes the probability of getting controversial decisions in their favour. If Barcelona have 30 attacks in a game that sees them in the opposiition box while Osasuna only have 4 then the likelihood of Barca getting a PK, even a controversial one, is simply much higher. And then of course there is confirmation bias. Because people think that Barca and Real get favoured they blow every instance of this occurring out of proportion.
Which was the right call at the time, as was sending B-teams to the Copa América - there were simply way too many tournaments getting scheduled in the same WC cycle at that time (including Brazil accepting invites to the Gold Cup).
This is also true. It also hurts the team with less possession a lot more if call goes against them, than a team that is generating 10 more chances per game. The winning team might not remember a bad call so much if they win in the end, whereas the small team will naturally remember theirs as it was one of the few chances they had.
Were Brasil really favorites in 2010 and 2014, though? I'm pretty sure they weren't. In 2006 they were favorites IIRC, but not overwhelmingly so. The talk about the CC curse is a bit silly when you consider none of those 3 Brasil teams had more than a 25-30% chance of winning the WC. Furthermore out of the last 5 CC champions, only France did particularly poorly in the WC the following year.
I wonder with the semifinals starting tomorrow if the matches have to go to penalties, will the penalties be the 'ABBA' system like they used in the U-20 WC?
For 2010, Brazil was the top ranked team of the world, with Spain second top ranked team. For 2014, Spain was the top ranked team, while Brazil was 11th mainly due to the fact they did not play qualifiers, but they were the Confed Cup Champions by defeating Spain at the final match, together with being hosts, which definitively had them among the favourites to win it all. And curiously, for both WC's, we got the luck of having to face them both.....
There is a study about that with data from the German Bundesliga. The league records and categorizes every single referee call that was made since the year 2000 as "undoubtedly right", "undoubtedly wrong" and "debatable". The study found that smaller teams consistently get more "undoubtedly wrong" calls when compared to bigger teams. Especially in high stakes calls like penalties given. I wouldn't be surprised if that is also true for other leagues and international tournaments.
If I remember correctly '05 was the first CC dubbed as a dress rehearsal for the WC, And the teams decided to bring their best. Brazil brought what was called the Fab 4 then.
The only reason Ronaldo, RC and Cafu didn't play is because they asked not to play. They wanted to rest.
I for one think that the Portugal style fits directly with Chile´s weakness, counters. Similar to versus Holland in Brazil, that particular set of players and counter style could be very damaging to an offensive Chile. I think if Chile plays calm and not our normal full out attack football, we will win. If not, I think a 1-0 in Portugal's favour could quickly turn 3-0 because of counters.
Still a pretty weak-ass curse if you ask me. When something with a 70% (or higher) chance of happening happens, I don't know why 'curse' immediately jumps into people's minds.
I could see this happening. All depends on who can score first and how it is officiated. That will dictate the pace and the physical style the rest of the way.