when was the last time Argentina failed to qualify? fact is that argentina was there even if it's hard they did it all the time since.... i don't want commebol to have less spots, to me 5-6 is fair enough nor i think uefa should get more. it just should stay as it is and concacaf get 4 instead of 3.5 afc 4 instead of 4.5 the nations i mentioned actually missed it and struggled.
You are right, but it was by sheer luck. Palermo scored in et of the last match. Without that goal, we were out. We even got rain that night, to enhance the dramatic atmosphere.
Europe is the World Cup. 12 Nations have been World Cup finalist 3 - South America 9 - Europe 0 - the Rest Imagine if - England had Ireland, Scotland & Wales - Yugoslavia existed - Czechoslovakia existed - Russia had Ukraine, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Belarus etc - Poland & Lithuania - Germany had Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg etc - Denmark, Sweden & Norway were still 1 nation - Spain & Portugal together That's the benefit South America has in fussbal
I think that you should re read my post, in recent World Cup history (I pointed out that clearly) , since the tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1998 ( before there were only 2.5 place for CONMEBOL,making it much more difficult for teams "not named Brazil-Argentina" to make it ) Paraguay has a better record than Sweden. Sweden failed to qualify three times for the WC since then, and more often than not, they were left out by teams that did not have exceptional showing in the subsequent World Cup. Paraguay most recent showing is a 1/4 in 2010 , where they were eliminated by the eventual champion. If you're speaking about football pedigree and total history, then yes, I agree, Sweden is better than Paraguay. But the fact that they reach 1 final or 2 semi finals before 1994 is irrelevant about their current form, since those achievements were 50 years ago. That's not really an argument, football is a team sport and one man does not make a team . Would you say that Wales deserve to be in the WC because they've got Gareth Bale, the most expensive player ever ?
but you did it! : ) holland was semi finalist in 98 and missed 02, france was finalist in 2006 and needed extra time and henry hand against ireland in 2010 play offs...noone here says that commebol should have it less spots. uefa shouldn't either. there are 13 uefa squads better than the 7th commebol 5th caf 4th concacaf, most of afc.... that's the point
It's too easy to deny history of world cup. What has been made before still stands. Uruguay is still a double world champion even if it was in 1930 and everybody was happy to have them in world cup even in 2002 when they didn't achieve anything for a long while. Sweden in history of world cup is finalist and multiple semi-finalist. In the recent years they never failed in group stage, they even took advantage of Paraguay. Sweden finished in play offs when Paraguay finished last of commebol zone behind peru and bolivia.... Who talked about Paraguay compared to the people talking about Ibrahimovic missing the world cup? Brazilians themselves miss more Ibrahimovic than whole Paraguay. you want to find articles and spots? History, head to head, players favors Sweden.
Indeed is very difficult to compare nations of different confederations.. Paraguay and Sweden have similar populations... But i think there's a huge difference between those two nations... Sweden is a wealthy nation, whereas Paraguay is not a wealthy nation....on the contrary, Paraguay is a country with economic problems, that's why to me it's amazing how Paraguay's football has achieved so many things in south america and also outside of south america... Paraguay has won 3 libertadores, 2 copas americas, silver medal in Olympics, and Paraguay advanced to quarterfinals in the last world cup..Remember, we are talking about a country with poverty, corruption, etc... on the other hand, Sweden doesn't have those problems... so it's kind of unfair to compare Sweden with Paraguay...
Plenty of poor footballers. As you well know Argentina's greatest footballing icon grew up in the slums. That said money means infrastructure and resources. Germany, for instance, probably has far more resources at their disposal to develop their national team than the likes of Paraguay, for purely economic reasons. Not defending the original assertion, just stating that it is a factor.
6 out of 13 progressing; only 1 out of 13 in last place. If anything that's over performing, especially in terms of marginal qualifiers, which is what also really matters when we are talking about increasing/decreasing allocations. Look no further than AFC/CAF for actual underperformance.
Canis, certainly, throughout history, we have witnessed poor nations producing great football players and in some cases, pretty good national teams.. However, to me is difficult to understand how some wealthy, football nations, aren't superpowers! i don't expect Paraguay to be a superpower given that Paraguay has economic problems and as a result they don't have a competitive domestic league... on the other hand, i would expect Sweden to be a superpower given that we are talking about a wealthy nation, so i suppose they have a competitive domestic league, so why isn't Sweden a superpower?
It's not unfair...it's the reality of competition. World cup should have the 32 best teams in the world not become a charity festival. Yugoslavia would have been one of the best squads in the world on regular basis if there was not the war. Croatia was in war in 90ies, independant only since 91, only 4 millions people with athletes shared in different sports, whether it's handball, basket, tennis, water polo, skiing, martial arts or others, is in fifa only since 94 and made their first world cup campaign for 98 got already 1 semi-final of world cup in only 5 world cup played since Croatia is indepandant. When former yugoslavia had already 2 semi-finals in world cup. People don't hesitate to say how they didn't do anything special since 98, they don't realize that there was a war and a hole in the training for few years and a restructuration, results are what they are. Sweden in world cup achieved more than Paraguay and that's it. I don't care about bolivia being compared to lichtenstein, lichtenstein never play a world cup. I care about having the best competition in world cup and there are plenty of nations in europe that outclass ecuador, paraguay, venezuela, bolivia and peru.
I agree. So much so that I tend to dislike clubs that overly emphasize wealth. It is funny to see a River fan talking about talent in the slums Vives en Argentina ahora misma? En Buenos Aires?
Por supuesto! La mezcla perfecta de culturas You should visit agentina´s forum. Lots of threads in spanish for you to practice
Yes but why does it matter? Who in the world, outside of this thread, really cares about whether the 9th best Conmebol team is better than the 15th best team in Uefa? There is a lot of rivalry in this thread but I think this is a point where Conmebol and Uefa fans should stick together. Our two confederations are different from the other confeds because Conmebol and Uefa are WINNER confeds. We regularly send teams to semifinals and finals. We're different to the others who are happy and celebrate if they get a point against Greece somewhere. Let AFC or CAF argue whether any of their teams are better than Peru or Croatia, that kind of discussion should be beneath uefa and Conmebol. We care about trophies. And finals. And semifinals. That should be our debate if we compare Conmebol and Uefa.
I suggest you google the Monty Hall problem, it might teach you something about statistical odds in these circumstances.
Exactly. That's what people want to see. Do you think 10 year old kids watch the World Cup to admire Iran's bunker tactics? Or revel in Costa Rica's playing for penalties for 120 minutes? No, they want to see magic, they want to see Messi, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Robben. That's why most of the advertising is based around star players. That's what people tune in for. That's what people remember. Not Iran-Nigeria. So go ahead, throw out Portugal, throw out England, bring in more Panamas and North Koreas. And then you very quickly won't have a World Cup anymore as there won't be any European broadcasters or sponsors anymore to pay the bill.
Amen. I am a huge Euro supporter, but in the end I think this argument is silly. Conmebol is fantastic and they provide us with some fantastic teams. Colombia and Chile this WC have been a pleasure to watch. Next time it can be Paraguay and Uruguay. 4 years isn't much, but I think we tend to forget how quickly things change.
It makes me so sad that you don't show much respect towards south american football. I have great respect for european football... i think lots of latin americans have lots of respect for european football, that's why our sports' channels broadcast so many european competitions. And indeed Croatia had a great performance in 1998 world cup... Now, in south america there are only 3 super powers... not bad... if we take into account that there are only 10 nations in conmebol... right now, Paraguay's national team is experiencing some problems, but they did great from 1996 to 2011.... they qualified to 4 consecutive world cups! for you that might not mean anything! but to me, is a great achievement to qualify to 4 consecutive world cups if you compete in south america! for the record, they qualified to 4 consecutive world cups with no calculator in hand! Brazil qualified to 2002 world cup with calculator in hand! and in the same way, Argentina qualified to 2010 world cup with calculator in hand. Regarding Peru, they had a pretty good team back in the 70's... i know they had a great player named Cubillas... he is a remarkable footballer who scored 10 goals in just 13 World Cup appearances.. Now, Ecuador and Venezuela are very new in this game . Ecuador advanced to the round of 16 in its second world cup appearance. On the other hand, Venezuela hasn't qualified to any world cup, Venezuela has always been a baseball nation... until very recently, venezuelans started taking football seriously... and if i'm not wrong, Venezuela has defeated every single south american nation in the last few years...