Re: Holland
A lot has to do with the region in which they are located and how the regional "draw" places them in the qualifying group. In fact, Holland, was never much of a "power" (simmilar to Belgium), until the great Cruyff and Neeskens... --2 semifinals lost against the host teams, Argentina (78 -OT 1 x 3) and Germany (74 -- 1 x 2) One could say, the Champions that never were.
To a degree, this last comment applies to Hungary, who in the early to mid 50's Hungary was an incredible soccer power. They lost the final in 54 (Switzerland), inexplicably to W. Germany.... (after Hungary beating the Germans 8 x 3 in the initial "group" games).
Colombia and Peru suffer from the same circumstances, along with Belgium and Portugal, (and to a lesser extent Chile and Paraguay), where there are flashes of brilliance here and there.... yet never really consistent enough to beat their neighbors.
Re: USSR/Russia Agreed. In fact, I believe that a lot of surprises will come from Ukrania, and not only in soccer. Hopefully, more and better soccer will come from the other new countries from the split of the old USSR.
Re: Greece... No comment -g
Another misc. tid-bits from that table...
Chechoslovakia will never enter another WC as that nation was peacefully divorced into Slovakia (NOT Slovenia) and the Czech Republic. Same with E. Germany, which was integrated with W. Germany and became a single nation.
Yugoslavia's case is different. Although it remains as a nation, (consisting of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro), football wise, it was weakened since the following nations split from Yugoslavia... (as a result of a much less friendly divorce). So... "new" countries were formed with no WC history, such as: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia/Herzegovina and Macedonia
Finally... Re: Costa Rica, Mexico and USA (and maybe Canada...
The results of these 4 (but mainly the first 3), do not tell the present situation where the USA and Costa Rica have improved tremendously... Mexico's record has benefited by the fact that they have played in more WC (always eliminating these two rivals)... yet, in reality, the record, particularly prior to 1970, is not stellar.
So it will be interesting how these three progress from this point on. |
