South America, Europe resume WCup combat
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Europe and South America will do battle again for soccer supremacy in the World Cup quarterfinals but with many of the usual combatants having already exited, there is a fresh feel to a line-up that promises a new or long-absent finalist.
While Africa, Asia and North America will not be represented, dashing any hope of a revolutionary breakthrough in the eventual destination of the trophy, at least one of this year’s finalists will not have reached the title decider for half a century, if at all.
With perennial challengers Germany, Spain and Argentina all having exited a tournament that has thrown up a never-ending series of surprises, the draw has a distinctly unbalanced feel in terms of the talent weighing on either side.
In one half, England, which played its one final when it won the title in 1966, and Sweden, which lost to Brazil on home soil in the 1958 final, will meet in Samara on Saturday with a last-four clash against Croatia or Russia awaiting the winner.
Neither the host, whose previous best was a single semifinal appearance as the Soviet Union in 1966 or Croatia, which also reached the last four in 1998, was expected to challenge but has significantly outshone many supposed superiors.
On the other side of the draw, five-time winner Brazil takes on Belgium’s so-called ‘Golden Generation’, and 1998 champion France faces two-time champion Uruguay.
It is here that the habitual battle between soccer’s two dominant continents, who have produced all previous World Cup winners, will take place.
While it is the fourth time in the last seven tournaments that no team outside of Europe or South America is in the last eight, even this quadrennial conflict will spurn its usual template.
Overturning long-held preconceptions about football’s two main land masses, this year’s quarterfinals pitch thrilling and adventurous European teams against pragmatic, stubborn and defensively-minded South American opponents.
Brazil, usually the game’s great entertainers, and Uruguay boast the meanest defenses at the World Cup having both conceded once in their four games. Their opponents, Belgium and France, are more focussed on creating havoc at the other end.
Uruguay kept Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo at bay in its 2-1 last-16 win, just as France hit four against Argentina at the same stage. They play in Nizhny Novgorod tomorrow.
Brazil’s defensive record under coach Tite has been remarkable, with only six goals conceded in 25 matches.
Belgium, however, is the tournament’s highest scorer with 12 in four straight wins, including its superb rally from 0-2 to beat Japan in the last 16.
If England gets past workhorse Sweden, whose brand of football is not the easiest on the eye, it will face either Russia or Croatia, who play each other in Sochi on Saturday.
None of the teams in this side of the draw, including England, would have begun the tournament with realistic expectations of reaching the final.
Yet those distant dreams are now edging closer to reality.
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