So Argentina, Brazil and England -- all teams who I thought could possibly win it -- are now out!
On the one hand it's nice that I won't be surrounded by flags and ridiculous England props now, but on the other hand it's too bad...I'd like to be in a country when their team wins the World Cup, it would be a huge party.
So now the 'World' Cup is between Germany, France, Italy and Portugal. Right. 4 countries that border one another (ok, so Portugal doesn't really, but they might as well) and 3 of them are G8 nations. What an 'international' competition...
Which made me wonder, what factors are necessary to make a good team? Surely a country with a population of 80 million will have a greater selection than one with only 8 million, but by that logic, India and China should be dominating. Therefore, there must be something within the countries that influences it as well....programs or funding or something. But it can't be all wealth, cuz the USA has both a significant population and a lot of cash, but they came in last in their group this year. So maybe it has something to do with how much people are exposed to the game when the grow up, and how much emphasis the home country places on the sport? I dunno, discuss.
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Short answer: a mix of culture and money. Americans don't care that much, so they have a team that reflects that. Canada cares even less (since we don't have hordes of Mexicans) and those that do care usually switch to hockey in the winter and shoose to play that professionally instead. That's my two cents.
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