Last Monday, September 11, forever historic due to Pinochet’s coup d’état in Chile and the attack on the Twin Towers in New York, Portugal bureaucratically beat Luxembourg 9 to 0. It was not a Saturday morning snack among the guys from the office but an official match for the qualification for the Euro 2024 to be played in Germany.
After the eighth goal, Luxembourg coach Luc Holtz could not stand the humiliation any longer and went to the locker room. Cristiano Ronaldo missed such a dish to add to his numbers for receiving a yellow card the previous day against Slovakia.
(See the spectacular goal by Colombian Jhon Jader Durán in the Premier League)(Scandal over love triangle in the Italian National Team: two players involved)
Goleadas
In the first leg Portugal had also beaten, but only 6-0, in the charming Luxembourg Stadium, with capacity for 9,386 spectators (and it was not full). “Infernal double from CR7 and Portuguese beating to be leader!” ESPN then headlined on its website.
Portugal scored 15 goals against Luxembourg in the two matches. That’s hell. What makes the 9-0 score even more horrendous is that, until that moment, Luxembourg was second in the group and was entering the Euros. The Portuguese National Team is ranked 9th in the FIFA World Ranking, Luxembourg 89th.
Ronaldo, in a Portugal match.
Group J of the Euro Cup Qualifiers also includes Slovakia (47), Bosnia (62), Iceland (67), and Liechtenstein (200). Portugal leads this zone with 6 played, 6 won, 24 goals for and 0 against. In this same competition, Spain beat Georgia 7 to 1 and Cyprus 6 to 0. Super goals are just around the corner in all groups.
This is what the European qualifiers are like, in general, for the Euros and for the World Cups. We are almost embarrassed to say that South America has 6.5 places for 2026, but Europe has no problem taking 16 direct places. Europe, which was a fiasco in Qatar.
All of his teams were disappointing in terms of football, even France, which was danced by Argentina for 80 minutes, although they finally tied 3 to 3. There was a reason why Deschamps wanted to break up the locker room in anger.
Nor is Mbappé shy about declaring that “Argentina and Brazil do not play high-level matches to reach the World Cup. Football is not as advanced as in Europe.” There are so many places for Europe that it is not unreasonable to think about it: among those 16 teams an Albania, a Kosovo, an Estonia could sneak in.
Surely, when his career ends, Mbappé will have scored 80 or 90 goals for European teams. In this same qualification for the Euro he scored two against Gibraltar and one against Greece.
Europe brings together 55 associations, but thirty teams are located between 50th and 208th in the Ranking. They are Andorra, Gibraltar, San Marino, Malta, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Feore Islands, etc. Only six or seven have strong football: France, Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal. And none of them have excess fantasy. Italy has gone two World Cups without going to a World Cup and Germany has been eliminated in the first round two in a row.
Argentina won by the smallest difference
They all seek to nationalize foreigners due to a lack of players, especially South Americans. Italy, shortly, is going to nationalize even the prop man.
The current Brazilian National Team has nine top-level attackers: Neymar, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Richarlison, Gabriel Jesús, Gabriel Martinelli, Lucas Paquetá, Raphinha and Antony. Among the seven strongest formations in Europe, they cannot gather such an endowment.
In their last game, Germany fielded Thomas Müller, 34, who is also not 9, as a center forward. He doesn’t have much else; The concern is that next year they will host the Euro Cup and the idea, as always, is to give a very German, powerful, winning image.
Europe equates its lesser amount of talent with good preparation, excellent coaches and, above all, its media resonance, the glamor of its stadiums. By the way, plunged into a deep crisis, German football will change its basic model: no more academicism, more pastures, they say.
Paraguay played possibly its best game against Peru in years. He overwhelmed him on all sides, hitting six shots against the woodwork and the fantastic Lima goalkeeper Gallese prevented at least half a dozen goals. But they barely managed to draw 0-0. Five days later, Paraguay fell to Venezuela 1-0.
That’s how it is on this side of the water, more complicated. Venezuela, which throughout time was the youngest of South America, would never receive 15 goals from Portugal in two matches. We dare to bet that, in Caracas or San Cristóbal, it would make him bite the dust. In turn, Uruguay, which had left an excellent impression against Chile, winning 3 to 1, fell in Ecuador 2 to 1 with the very brave tricolor team.
Neymar, player from Brazil.
Photo:
EFE/Vitor Silva/CBF
We should not be ashamed of the 6 and a half quotas. Africa and Asia, which have never won anything, have 9 and 8 respectively. Of course, they have many more member countries and it is fair that everyone has rights and possibilities to
and attend the big party, but South America has won 10 World Cups, 5 Olympics, 16 Youth World Cups, 6 Futsal Cups, 5 Beach Soccer Cups and, above all, it has produced the great artists of this game.
The World Cup would not have the same flavor without the participation of Brazil and Argentina. If one of ours is crowned again in 2026, Conmebol should demand at least 7 direct places for the continent. Or 7 and a half. It deserves.
South America is the largest exporter of soccer players in the world to other continents. Their talents not only supply almost every market on the planet, they shine them. As of May 2023, Brazil was the first world producer with 1,289 players, Argentina the third with 905, Colombia the sixth with 448, Uruguay the thirteenth with 338. Further down, Paraguay 150, Venezuela 112, Ecuador 82, Chile 68, Peru 25 and Bolivia 7. The smallest football region demographically contributes 3,355 players to the rest.
What highlights all these achievements is that, in addition, South American football is the one with the least budget and the one with the least political weight within the FIFA universe. Its ten associations out of 211 affiliates represent 0.4 percent of the pie.
Luis Díaz, Rafael Santos Borré and James Rodríguez.
And in this field we also contribute: João Havelange, the only non-European, was the president who expanded the game to all corners, integrated Africa, Asia, Oceania, the Caribbean, created most of the tournaments, achieved the great sponsorships and took FIFA from being an old mansion in Zurich with 11 employees to the current giant that has a turnover of billions.
South America has been again. And our Qualifiers are, by far, the best in the world.
(Luis Díaz was key in Liverpool’s agonizing victory against Wolves)
Jorge Barraza
For the time
last tango
@JorgeBarraza OK
2023-09-17 05:00:00
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