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loginBrazil 7th, Spain 8th, France 10th, 14th Italy, 16th Costa Rica, 17th Croatia aaand (iiit's cooooming home, iiit's coooming home... *sing*) on 20th... England
What'S the purpose of this ranking anyway? (Except for determining the group heads at tourneys)
Summing up my pov on this World Cup: I'm really surprised about what the German team did there. I was rather sceptical at the beginning and I still think that the team is far from dominating world's football in the next years as some noobs in Germany are now already caliming.
I'm disappointed of Brazil's performance. I was aware that they had lost their role as football super power some time ago but I at least expected them to show more dedication with their fans behind them (just as the German team in 2006).
I'm also disappointed of the teams from Africa and Asia. I don't know for how long "experts" now predict that Asia/Africa will become serious opponents for the established nations, but this World Cup, (as well as the other tournaments) showed that from the Quarter final on it's still mainly an EU/SA thing. Ghana'S and Algeria'S performance vs Germany still deserve much respect and any team more effective would have kicked us out of the tournament.
I have, however, the impression that the US team is getting stronger and stronger with every World Cup they participate in. I'm not sure if I am happy about this. I mean, they are already #1 in almost everything, can't they just leave football to us?
Finally, the European teams:
The Netherlands impressed me a lot in their first match vs Spain though I am not sure how much Spain's weakness contributed to this. I had not watched any of NED'S games until the semifinal afterwards but even after Germany's 7-1 over BRA the prospect of having to meet NED in the final match scared the shit out of me.
England's performance was not really a big surprise to me. To me, someone who does know shit about English football, the English team consists of Rooney, Gerrard and some other random guys who could be replaced anytime by someone else, and this is surely the problem English football is facing right now.
To me Italy and Spain both seem to have missed the chance to develop their teams further after their respective World Cup wins (just like Germany did after '90 and France after '98). I do not know about Italy, but I am sure we will see a stronger Spain at the Euro 2016 and the World Cup 2018.