First of all, full marks to Croatia, they wanted it more and worked harder for it. The Germans really have to work harder now to make it past the group stage.
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Originally Posted by Thunderball
I guess the question is, is it worth losing a big nation or two in a big tournament to try and lure a small fry into the fray?
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Well, part of FIFA's mandate is to grow the game like any other sport, so yes.
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Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN
I love the World Cup, but I really have no desire to watch teams like Togo, Saudi Arabia Costa Rica or Ecuador or teams of that ilk. I find overall, the Euro is a better tourney overall. If there could be a World Cup with Euro teams and Brazil/Argentina, I'd be all over that. Don't need to see African/Asian countries go 0-3. Although when they do surprise a la Senegal in 02, Ivory Coast in 06, Nigeria in 98 and Cameroon in 94, I'm all for it.
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You must not watch the World Cup much then, some of those African countries play some great soccer. I love watching Nigeria, Cameroon. These are countries that play a tough grinding game. Yeah, you're going to have some minnow teams in there, there have to be.
By this standard you dont want to see teams like Canada in there either, you just want the current top 20 teams in the world to play each other over and over and over.
If smaller teams dont get into big tournaments like this they'll never improve, and that includes Canada. Look at Switzerland and Austria, they're the minnows of this tournament and I think they've played some great games.