World Cup Final 11th July 2010

I was chatting to a friend of mine yesterday about the World Cup and why we both hadn't enjoyed it particularly. We were both adamant that it was down to a tangible drop in quality and not just because our misty memories remember the old ones so much better. We decided there were a couple of major reasons.

The first is that there are too many teams. Although it is great to see plucky New Zealand leave the World Cup unbeaten, they were no better then Prem relegation/Championship level. Now, we can all look back on Haiti in 1974 and have a laugh at how bad the bad teams have always been, but when you have 32 teams in a competition it stands to reason that there will be a fair number of teams who are not going to be good enough.

64 matches in a tournament is too many, especially when some of those matches are going to be between two average to poor teams. By the time we get to the Quarter Finals, most fans have become a bit jaded by all the football that they have watched. Fine for those who pick and choose their games, but for the real fan who is compelled to watch as many games as possible: well, it's like eating 3 bars of 70% cocoa chocolate in one go!

Bring it back to 24, drop 6 European teams if it is important to spread the tournament around the world and keep as many Asia/Oceanic/Concacaf teams as there are currently. I don't have a problem with 3 or 4 teams as poor as New Zealand (and they weren't the worst) being in the World Cup finals, it's when there are 8 or 9 that I start to object.

Secondly, we reckon that the element of surprise has gone. Back in the day when the majority of South American players were new to us and both African and Asian players were unheard of it was great to see how the different styles of football fared against each other. Stereotyping the "Latin" football of the Argentinians against the dour, workmanlike football of some European team was fascinating. Seeing which new star the Brazilians would unveil was always enjoyable. But these days the vast majority of the players play in Europe and we see them all the time in the Champions League. Taking aside Germany who do seem to recruit predominately from the Bundesliga, which has something like 76% German nationals playing in it, there can't have been many games at all during this World Cup where there were no club team-mates on opposing sides.

All the best South Americans play in Spain, Italy or the Prem; virtually all the African players play in Europe. The J-League is very strong, accounting for the majority of Asian players but there are still plenty of them playing in Europe. For football fans who watch a lot of European football, there can't have been a single player who made a positive impression during this World Cup who was unknown.

All this adds up to the fact that games are no longer played between strangers, and that every manager/coach knows exactly how their opponents are going to play before the game. The result is that the better coaches know how to counteract the opposition's strengths and can "level the playing field" before the game starts.

If anything club sides are often better than the National sides, probably more due to the relative levels of coaching. You could argue that two of the best three coaches in the world are club managers (Mourinho and Guardiola) and they will create teams who are better than any National side. Taking the best players and putting them in a team doesn't work unless they are organised and tactically aware. We're never going to know if Barcelon are better than Spain for obvious reasons, but I'd like to see Spain versus Inter!

My mate also reckoned that the games were a lot duller with nowhere near as many goals as in previous WC's. He's right, with Spain being the lowest scoring World Champions ever and the goals per game being the second lowest ever, but I disagree. With the increase in tactical awareness and the proliferation of different formations, I found some of the closer games enthralling. I know the German v Spain semi final was a turn off for many but I was captivated by the relative tactical games being played by Low and Del Bosque. Low showed himself to be tactically astute throughout the tournament: able to isolate his opposition's strengths and set tactics not just to negate them but also to showcase his own team's strengths.

Germany's 4-0 win over Argentina was not just about breaking the supply chain between midfield and the front three of Messi, Tevez and Higuain, but also to apply pressure to the weakness on the right side of Argentina's defence, time and time again. Germany's last three goals were all scored in the same way: attack in numbers down the left wing in order to bring out an Argentinian central defender in support, then play the ball into the resulting gap for any number of German forwards (or Freidrich!) to hit it home. Simple but very effective.

Finally, neither of us are bothered by England going out. In fact, our enjoyment of the World Cup increased once England had been sent home and I have a great many friends who agree. It's not that I don't like England or want to support them; it's all to do with the unbearable pressure placed on my brain by the UK media, print and broadcast.

Lambethgull made it very clear what our National side was like way back in March:

yet all the hype in this country has been about how great we are and how John Terry, er Rio Ferdinand, er Steven Gerrard is going to lift the World Cup. It's been relentless. I still believe that had Slovenia tried harder for a win against us they could have got it, or a draw at the very least, and we would have been knocked out at the group stage.

I don't actually mind us not being particularly good as much as I hate the delusion throughout all walks of English society that we are great. I've been to the World Cups in 2002 and 2006 and on both occasions I kept as far away from England games and England fans as I was able to. I'd love England to do well at the next World Cup but I'd like our nation to be humble a lot more.

But overall, no, not a great World Cup. I'm looking forward to 2014 purely because it is in Brazil, but I'm not looking forward to 2018 even if it does end up being held here in England.