Look at the last three World Cups 2006 1st - Italy 2nd - France 3rd - Germany 4th - Portugal 2010 1st - Spain 2nd - Netherlands 3rd - Germany 2014 1st - Germany 3rd - Netherlands Even Brazil has been terrible against Western European teams recently 2006 Brazil 0-1 France 2010 Brazil 0-0 Portugal Brazil 1-2 Netherlands 2014 Brazil 1-7 Germany Brazil 0-3 Netherlands
Well according to soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Syzmanski "Japan, Australia, Turkey and even Iraq are destined to become kings of the world's most popular sport." Probably by 2026 the gap between the traditional favourites and other rising nations will have gone. I think the biggest benefit will probably be to countries with more money and population like USA and Russia.
I think given their history and culture for football many of these nations will be powerhouses in years to come (some will fall a little others will rise). Eastern Europe will linger behind for a few more years, not sure if they'll ever reach the old highs of Yugoslavia and USSR (but Serbia, Croatia and Russia do have strong teams, and most the rest are competitive). American teams will continue to be strong (esp. Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina), with other nations such as Chile, Mexico, Colombia and even the USA usually competitive.
lol That may happen at some point but surely not by 2026. Lets be realistic - 2026 is pretty damn soon! If anything major like that was going to happen by 2026 we would already be 70-80% of the way there. But we are clearly not given that the Quarter-finalists of the past two WCs were still dominated by traditional powers. Anyway, I voted for the 3rd option. But the question is based on a false premise since W. Europe isn't even dominating now. It's just 3 W. European countries which are (Spain, Germany and the Netherlands). And 2 of those NTs have already begun regressing due to their best players getting old.
Every country has aging players all the time. The only question is if they can be replaced adequately with younger players. Messi and Suarez will be will be 31 during the next WC. Some of South America's best players are getting old too. In 2018 there will be some great new players again, that no one knows of right now. Who would have guessed in 2006 that the 16-year-old Thomas Müller would win the Golden Boot at the WC four years later? And who would have guessed in 2010 that the 19-year-old James Rodriguez would do the same in 2014? It's impossible to tell right now whether Europe or South America will have better teams in 2018.
European teams in general have not performed swell in the group stage the past two World Cups. Here is how many Europeans were in the second round since it expanded to 24 teams. 1982 - 10/12 1986 - 10/16 1990 - 10/16 1994 - 10/16 1998 - 10/16 2002 - 9/16 2006 - 10/16 2010 - 6/16 2014 - 6/16 I've realized that Europeans have performed worse but the best European teams made up for it in the knockout stage.
Yeah it's 12 years from now. The players that would go to that WC generation are already born and should be between 10-16 by now. That means those players will take Europe by storm in the next 4 years or so
I get your point, but what I mean is that some of the UEFA teams responsible for this so-called 'domination' are already weaker and have not been replaced. So I guess what I'm saying is that if there was a domination period starting in 2006, it is already over. Just having 2 of the top 4 teams globally isn't 'domination'.
2018 World Cup: Italy or Netherlands will be the winner 2022 World Cup: Brazil, Argentina, or Spain will be the winner