Oh no,The European football is struggling at the world cup, Oh, the horror!

[un_rank]

... (but it's a round of 32, damn, they could make it a round of 64 and then even more teams would be "successful" haha) and based on this, some fans started shouting about success.

It was still very impressive for the African teams that almost all made it out of the group stage. Each teams played under the same conditions, it does not favor any particularly to have best 3rd place teams goig through. The knockouts have shown that most of them xo not yet have the X factor to win knockout matches even when they have a good lead for most of the game.

- Jay -

[savetheFORUM]

It's obvious that Europe will always dominate the World Cup in terms of having many national teams going far, at least until the day other continents have leagues better than Europe's. In the past, Brazil and Argentina are currently the only teams that can at least take the World Cup title away from the Europeans.

Europe will not always dominate; even though they are dominating currently, I strongly believe that a time will come when Africa will win the World Cup because with every World Cup there is a clear observation of steady progress that African teams are making.

We are not there yet, but we will get there.

We all know nothing is forever, but still European soccer is having great depth, keeping their momentum at the top for a long time, and they can stay at the top for a long time in the future as well because they have done enough work for this.

Even in the last few years, a few European countries have been facing problems, but new ones are ready to take over. Africans are doing good development, still it's not easy for them to take over from Europe because mostly they don't have a good domestic setup, which keeps consistency and provides quality players, and Africans are having big problems.

Many players are shifting into Europe for a better future; this is also not going to set easily in the near future. Financial stability and deep roots are big advantages for them, as they have enough elite academies that are providing them impressive youths for the future.

[darewaller]

Six teams in the quarter finals, only Morocco and Argentina not European. And now Morocco is gone too, so first place at semi finals is European. 2 more is guaranteed, so we are going to see 3 out of 4 teams from Europe as always, and the other is Latin American as always.

I am pretty sure that European football is just fine, there is nothing that we can do this to change it, we should realize that it is not going to be something that is all that complicated for them, and it is clear that we are going to end up seeing a finalist European yet again too.

[blomen]

everything related to football is in europe. although teams from africa or south america also have many die-hard fans, neither financially nor in terms of the quality of play are teams from other continents even in the same league as a european team. this is also true for national teams.

since there are 48 teams in this world cup, some teams have been given new opportunities, and it’s normal for a few of them to pull off surprises, but it’s very difficult for these teams to reach the quarterfinals or semifinals. miraculous victories might happen in one or two matches. the rest is determined by the team’s quality.

[Alphakilo]

Some of these threads were started hurriedly. The authors saw a few European teams having poor results and thought that they wouldn't do well. Maybe seeing that nine out of ten African teams qualified from the group stage gave them the impression that they would perform better. This is exactly the problem of hasty judgement and its a learning for everyone including me.

Although some African teams put up a good performance, the outcome of the round of 32 showed that Africa still has a long way to go. I was expecting at least five African sides to make it to the next round, but they got just two

The current situation has shown that Europe still occupies the top position in global football. There will always be a clear difference between those who invest heavily in sports and those who put in peanuts.

African teams mostly dwell on physical strength and stamina training rather than tactical plays or creative plays and that's why when they  go into extra minutes, the players on the bench may not have the tactical discipline like those who have played from the onset mostly at that time when the pressure is high. There's always lack of systemic depth to sustain performance and this is where the European and south American teams out perform them just like we saw in this world cup.

In teams where there isn't proper infrastructure to train with or squad depth or historical pedigree, no matter how much the tournament is expanded to fit more teams, UEFA and CONMEBOL would always do better than the CAF  abd CONCACAF teams altogether.

[r_victory]

With the exception of Argentina, the teams still standing in the World Cup so far are European. My country's team was a disappointment. If Argentina gets knocked out by Switzerland—which might be difficult, though not impossible—the title will once again go to a European team. To say they are struggling is a complete exaggeration...

[Odusko]

... (but it's a round of 32, damn, they could make it a round of 64 and then even more teams would be "successful" haha) and based on this, some fans started shouting about success.

It was still very impressive for the African teams that almost all made it out of the group stage. Each teams played under the same conditions, it does not favor any particularly to have best 3rd place teams goig through. The knockouts have shown that most of them xo not yet have the X factor to win knockout matches even when they have a good lead for most of the game.

- Jay -

My major question right now is, if we are to rate African team in this round of the world cup, are we rating ther performance a poor or just average because to me since non of the African team made out of the knock stage to the semi finals we shouldn't give them much remarks and for one reason is a disappointment tht none can scale through that least the semi finals.

[Die_empty]

African teams mostly dwell on physical strength and stamina training rather than tactical plays or creative plays and that's why when they  go into extra minutes, the players on the bench may not have the tactical discipline like those who have played from the onset mostly at that time when the pressure is high. There's always lack of systemic depth to sustain performance and this is where the European and south American teams out perform them just like we saw in this world cup.

In teams where there isn't proper infrastructure to train with or squad depth or historical pedigree, no matter how much the tournament is expanded to fit more teams, UEFA and CONMEBOL would always do better than the CAF  abd CONCACAF teams altogether.

Then who is to blame for this based on your observation? Is it the coach or players? Most of these African players play in Europe, where they are exposed to modern tactics and "systemic depth". So they are not strangers to the European style of play.

So many factors are limiting the growth of African football. And at the top of it is corruption and the inability to attract world-class coaches. The Senegalese side had some problems that I don't want to talk about that contributed to their untimely departure. I am not saying Africa doesn't have good coaches, but they need more. 

[Julien_Olynpic]

There's nothing surprising about Europe's dominance in world football. And there's nothing surprising about the fact that, until recently, African teams couldn't compete. I could write platitudes about football being an economically resource-intensive sport. A country needs to be economically developed to develop youth football, which is the foundation for adult sports. It's quite expensive to build a stadium, maintain it, pay coaches, support sports schools, and so on.

[Gozie51]

So basically what all the stats are saying... nothing changed overall, just the names making the stats!  

Well accepted and taken but the fact is still standing for itself that African teams do well from the start of every game. African teams are no longer push away easily. I can't remember if an African teams lost by 4 or 5 goals at this tournament, none. In fact, most loses were as a result of late minutes loss of concentration. African teams will keep getting better at the world stage.

If the economy and financial propriety of Africa continent can improve like her football then other continent will not stand up to them at the world stage. For example, African football league is no where near what is happening in Europe yet at a time of team to team play, Africa teams give any team a run for their money.

Unfortunately that no African team is remaining at the tournament but I still enjoyed the performance of their games.

[KTChampions]

With the exception of Argentina, the teams still standing in the World Cup so far are European. My country's team was a disappointment. If Argentina gets knocked out by Switzerland—which might be difficult, though not impossible—the title will once again go to a European team. To say they are struggling is a complete exaggeration...

I'm probably biased, but the fact that Argentina are still in the game is just a matter of luck - look at the teams they've played so far. Egypt, Cape Verde (both games were difficult for Argentina), and the group consisted of Algeria, Austria, Jordan. Even if Argentina had lost to Austria, it is hard to imagine them losing second place in the group to Algeria or Jordan. And it's even harder to imagine losing third place. The defending champion essentially got an easy path to the semifinals. I don't expect any surprises from Switzerland (I've already bet on Argentina haha).

[Smartprofit]

So basically what all the stats are saying... nothing changed overall, just the names making the stats!  

Well accepted and taken but the fact is still standing for itself that African teams do well from the start of every game. African teams are no longer push away easily. I can't remember if an African teams lost by 4 or 5 goals at this tournament, none. In fact, most loses were as a result of late minutes loss of concentration. African teams will keep getting better at the world stage.

If the economy and financial propriety of Africa continent can improve like her football then other continent will not stand up to them at the world stage. For example, African football league is no where near what is happening in Europe yet at a time of team to team play, Africa teams give any team a run for their money.

Unfortunately that no African team is remaining at the tournament but I still enjoyed the performance of their games.

It seems to me (and this is my subjective opinion) that the problem with African football teams isn't the continent's poor financial situation. More precisely, it's a consequence, not a cause.🙋

Corruption is rampant in Africa (as in my country), and it's a plague that corrodes any good deed like acid. African athletes themselves are incredible athletes! They're every bit as good as European and South American footballers. Many of them trained in European clubs and have mastered the European style of football.

The loss of concentration among African players at the end of football matches is most likely not a consequence of their poor physical condition. It's more likely a systemic problem. What is corruption? It's when a system imitates normal functioning. Success isn't achieved because the system isn't interested in achieving it. The system has completely different goals.🤷

[salad daging]

There's nothing surprising about Europe's dominance in world football. And there's nothing surprising about the fact that, until recently, African teams couldn't compete. I could write platitudes about football being an economically resource-intensive sport. A country needs to be economically developed to develop youth football, which is the foundation for adult sports. It's quite expensive to build a stadium, maintain it, pay coaches, support sports schools, and so on.

That's right, advanced economic resources will give birth to the seeds of talented young players, it is possible that African players who are at the beginning of their football school in Europe because there is good guidance and adequate in all fields.
It is in Europe that football academy training for children grows, and many players become popular after becoming big so it is not surprising that Europe still masters everything in football.

[Dunamisx]

We shouldn't take things to personal when it comes to having an entertainment like this in football, it is such a game that we don't know how to predict it about those that will make it to the last final, not only Europe are being affected in this but also the Africans, little did we know that the African countries will not also have the opportunity of going further until the last performance with Morocco, so in matches like this, anything is bound to happen I wish you expect for such without much disappointment because it is all for fun.

[Ryu_Ar1]

Conditionally indeed for now in the World Cup a total of participants are following which makes it look much more interesting because UEFA 16 teams, CAF10 teams, AFC 9 teams, CONCACAF 6 teams and CONMEBOL 6 teams so the passion will be much greater but when talking about the achievements and conditions of the strength of the team of course UEFA is still quite dominating until now even now semi fina We certainly have 3 representatives from UEFA and One More Switzerland who will compete with Argentina which may be the victory is in Argentina as the only remaining CONMEBOL representative.

The increase in the number of teams in the World Cup makes the structure different than when only 32 teams played like in the previous World Cup period so this may cause euphoria from many people including those in this forum.
But to say that Europe is struggling is certainly wrong because despite the number of participants for the current World Cup Europe still looks very strong.

[Yabani]

When some European teams performed poorly during the group stage, negative headlines emerged—and social media buzzed—about the state of European football; however, if Switzerland manages to eliminate Argentina from the World Cup now (a difficult task, though not impossible), the trophy will come to Europe. Argentina is currently the only non-European team left, and I am not even sure if they can make it all the way to the final. In my opinion, Europe has been the true cradle of football, especially in recent years; so many players strive to secure transfers to European leagues.

[ArabBTC]

It's obvious that Europe will always dominate the World Cup in terms of having many national teams going far, at least until the day other continents have leagues better than Europe's. In the past, Brazil and Argentina are currently the only teams that can at least take the World Cup title away from the Europeans.

Europe will not always dominate; even though they are dominating currently, I strongly believe that a time will come when Africa will win the World Cup because with every World Cup there is a clear observation of steady progress that African teams are making.

We are not there yet, but we will get there.

Yea very true, nothing last forever and from the performance of African teams in this World Cup their is a clear sign that African football is improving drastically, however, i have watched African teams play and almost all of them still have same playing mentality that have made them lose against European teams, first African teams still have that mindset that European teams are better and because of that they hardly maintain their lead in matches, once an African team is leading they will start defending by so doing giving the opponent European teams the opportunity to press and score, African team must erase that mentality that they are the underdogs anytime they face a European team because in life you win or lose in the mind, secondly African teams must erase the mentality that FIFA is favoring any team, i saw the comments made by the Egyptian coach after their defeat against Argentina and i was so disappointed, the truth is once a team is so exceptional no one can rub them, to me instead of such complaints they should have focused more on improving themselves, African teams have done well in this World Cup but more work is still needed if they have plans of winning the World Cup in the nearest future.

[DiMarxist]

I don't think that European teams are actually struggling at this on going world cup. Looking at the tournament right from the beginning it obvious that European teams are the once dominating the tournament. From the look of things the world cup is likely to return back to the European continent again after four years, because from the look of things only Argentina is the obstacle and this Argentina team is not what can pose as a serious threat to the European teams that are left in this world cup. Don't be too surprised if we see a all European final in this world cup.

[uneng]

European teams have cold blood to take a match until the end on the same intensity and focus, besides the fact their accuracy on finalizations is superior to another teams. Meanwhile, I've noticed African teams play intensily on the beginning to the half of the match, they have high speed, endurance, but they lack ability to score when they have the opportunity on their hands. That is what prejudiced them the most on this world cup.

Maybe it has something to do with the psychological aspect of the players. Usually when we feel nervous and anxious, we tend to commit dumb mistakes we normaly wouldn't make if in a calm mood.

[famososMuertos]

The issue is the number of teams. South America only had six, and one reached the round of 16. Africa had nine teams, and Europe had 16.
So, while wins and losses are a parameter for measuring performance, things change when you consider a team's chances of becoming champion.

The situation is that the World Cup has—or rather, had—the characteristic of its former world champions always being present, and that hasn't been the case this year. For starters, Italy isn't there. Let's be clear: European football is England, Germany, Spain, and Italy, and now France is among the elite. That being said, at the club level, the rest of the leagues are just noise.