South American Sparkle but European Shine

Not for the first nor dare I say the last time, coming into the Quarter final round of the World Cup the stage was set for an almighty battle between the South American teams and those defending Europe’s pride.

The slight difference in this tournament was that the rate of drop-off of European team was so high that all and sundry were talking of a ‘South American World Cup’ with the remnants of the Europeans receiving individual merits if any at all. How foolish this proved.

So what to make of the near catastrophic failure of the lower Hemisphere’s proud representatives? The correct action would of course be to study the performances individually to decide what went wrong and given the different set-ups of Spain, Germany and Holland, the three antipodeans’ conquerors, the three losses may not appear linked.
However at least one generic failing appears identifiable, in that all three sides appeared to have the run of the game for large stretches, with Brazil looking especially strong before being pegged back time and again. Could it be that the wintry conditions are finally playing into the hands of the European teams?

The sole representatives of the region are Uruguay, possibly the weakest of the lot (fifth placed qualifiers via a play-off lest we forget), and extremely lucky to be in the semi finals despite the talent they present up front. They created the majority of chances in the match against Ghana and deserved their progress for their bravery in playing against the whole of Africa as well as the international goodwill generated towards the West African country. The actions of Luis Suarez in the final minute of extra time will have eroded a lot of the kudos they had built up in progressing so far, but few players would have reacted differently and it is just a shame that Gyan did not produced his later shootout penalty at the most vital moment.

Onto the Semi finals, and Spain take on Germany to provide one European finalist, but before that Holland will be favourites to make it an Intra-continental affair if they can find a spark through Robben or Sneijder against Uruguay on Tuesday night.