Yes and no, as "producing" implies that it's at the youth level, where they are not necessarily bombing at.
I don’t think it’s arguable. Some people toss the 98 win aside as a host nation win and then focus on the 02 blowup. But I think that ignores how good that team is, how tough winning (even at home) is, and also forgets the 2000 win. And to tie in the above point, I think if you go back to 82 they might be the most successful team since the tournament went to 24 teams. They missed out on qualifying for 2 tournaments by 2 total points. And have won 2, runners up 2 and semifinalists twice. Germany and Argentina are the competition for the timeframe and you probably have to give it to Germany on points, so to speak. But recency bias would probably hand it to France.
I do wonder if FIFA will reconsider some of the details of the WC allocations/playoffs for 2030 based on how 2026 goes. It would be one thing to see countries like China or Indonesia or Vietnam qualify, but teams like Curacao or Haiti or Cabo Verde or Jordan aren't exactly big ratings draws or markets of the scale FIFA will be looking to tap into. I guess Qatar can at least offer oil money bribes though.
But so many stories of colonies taking on their overlording countries. Curacao v. Holland, Haiti v. France, Cape Verde v. Portugal. I guess we could get Vietnam v. France too, but that seems less fun than the tiny island nation going up against big mama
Dunno what stories you think of, but the Surinam and Curacao selection are born in the Netherlands, were developed by and in the Dutch system. There's zero contribution soccerwise from these countries. In fact one could consider them Orange Squad B/C, because they couldnot make the cut for the Orange A squad. So such a confrontation would be like a club's A team playing against their reserves.
Born....where did he learn to play soccer and where did he play? Edit: If he stayed on the island, he would be a baseball player.
Oh, then there are 4 members of the Suriname team who were born in Suriname, one of which has played his whole career there.
Wonder how Edgar Davids plays into the equation here. I actually don’t, but for some reason can’t resist trying to throw gasoline on this particular bonfire.
Edgar Davids, Aaron Winter and Clarence Seedorf were born in Paramaribo, but their parents fled the independence of Surinam in 1975 and were raised and football educated in the Netherlands. Nothing Surinam about their football heritage. The list is long and winding with in the Netherlands born players and developed players. The list is very short with Surinam developed players in the Orange Squad, one. In 1960! The list with Surinam born players in the Orange Squad can be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Mijnals He debuted in the Netherlands national football team on 3 April 1960 in a home match against Bulgaria. Mijnals, nicknamed Minna, is best known for clearing a Bulgarian attempt on goal with an overhead kick.[4] The influx of Surinam players started when the sons of the the Surinam 1975 independence escapees were playing football in their Dutch clubs and received the Dutch development. Frustrated Americans about the Orange Squad being superior to their USMNT tried to frame the Dutch football success as appropriated from their colonies, but hey...the Dutch clubs Feyenoord and Ajax had their successes in Europe in the late sixties and the 70ies without any Surinam player. The Orange Squad reached two WC finals without them. The first Dutch team with "Surinam" related players with a title was the EURO1988 winner. Simple fact. Indonesia, Surinam, Curacao born, raised and developed players have zero football impact. Dutch players with Dutch Indies/Indonesian, Surinam, Curacao roots, raised and developed in the Dutch system have won national club titles, played and/or won UEFA European Cup winners Cup/Champions League/UEFA Cup/Europa League/Conference League finals and played a WC final and semi final.
Not sure this really deserves its own thread, but looking ahead to potentially fiery group stage matchups based on yesterday’s draw, Portugal-Colombia in Miami could be an all-timer if those teams drop points in their earlier games. Maybe they’ll each have six points and be fine. If not, and if FIFA wants to abide by confederation neutrality as strictly as they’ve been doing recently, that game could get very fun. But it really could carry a risk of “sacrificing” a ref quite early in the tournament in the event of a bad performance in a difficult game, and with so many knockout games still on the schedule. Elfath and Faghani stand out as the safest options in that scenario; Morocco and Iran can’t meet anyone from that group in the R32, and the US can only in an unlikely scenario. However, both of them had Portugal/related controversies at the last World Cup. I kind of doubt FIFA would trust Beida Ghorbal, Kawana-Waugh, or any other Asian with a game like that. Barton and Ramos there would have high potential for chaos and hilarity. I almost forgot out Fischer, he kind of makes a lot of sense there (Canada is also not in play to meet a Group K team). Or maybe Portugal and Colombia just do their jobs in the first two matchdays and Collina doesn’t have to worry about it.
Obviously it's way to early to speculate. But that's never stopped us. Or me. One component of this tournament that we haven't seen since 1994 is the best third-place team scenario. That means, obviously, that how well 3rd place teams perform will matter, so there are going to be situations where even the clear or expected 3 v 4 games will matter a ton. Plus there will be upsets so the expected 1 or 2 teams could end up slotting into a 3rd place finish. But specifically to the point about a game like Portugal v Colombia, the winner of that group gets a third-place team (which, mathematically, should be the type of team that could barely qualify in a 32 team tournament) while the second place team gets the runner-up in Group L, which could be Croatia or England. My point here is that the marquee matches do matter because of the likely subsequent opponent. First versus second will be a big deal in most group. In particular, I'd have my eyes on Brazil v Morocco (for someone like Marciniak, Oliver, or Turpin) because the loser of that is likely to play the Netherlands, who really drew a short straw in the sense that their group winner plays not only a second-place team, but probably one of the best possible second-place teams (and finishing second gets you that group winner, so there's very little hope of avoiding Morocco or Brazil). H and J are the other two groups tied together like this (where you can't play a third place team) so that means the loser of Uruguay v Spain is likely to play Argentina. So, yeah, those two games mentioned above plus Brazil v Morocco are huge, even if both teams have qualified or are certain to qualify.
All group L games are dangerous. Two of those could be a 3rd place qualifier, desperate to secure that 3rd place status in R3. We've seen England be secure in R3 and desperate in R3. They might need to put 7 goals on Panama. Ghana v Croatia could be a barn burner too. Pencil a CONMEBOL referee on one of those for sure. AFC or CONCACAF on Ghana v Croatia?