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Throughout its history, football has been dominated by two regions - South America and Europe. All seventeen World Cup final tournaments have been won by teams from these continents, with the exception of the United States in the first World Cup, where there were no matches for third place, and teams from other parts of the world have not made it to the podium of winners.
Despite the fact that after Brazil's fifth triumph in 2002 the South American countries recorded their 9th victory in the World Championships, surpassing the 8-time champions of Europe, this did not definitively resolve the debate over which continent is stronger on the football fields. This question remains open because history has shown that the World Cup championships have been won alternately by teams from the two continents - with only two consecutive victories by Italy and Brazil as exceptions.
In 2005, the so-called Latin America (composed of South America and most Central American countries) was more successful, claiming all of FIFA's international prizes: Mexico triumphed in the Under-17 World Cup, Argentina won the Under-20 tournament, Brazil won the Confederations Cup, Sao Paulo won the Club World Cup, and the most important individual award - the Player of the Year title - was won for the second consecutive time by Brazilian Ronaldinho.
All of these victories are an unbeatable achievement, especially considering that in some tournaments the teams from the region even placed second - Brazil was the runner-up in the U-17 tournament, and the national team finished second in the Confederations Cup final, losing to Argentina. Winning everything this year is great, but next year the most important tournament awaits - the coveted "Jules Rimet Trophy" in South America, an attempt to bring the World Champions title from Europe.
This feat has only been achieved once by South Americans in 1958, when Brazil triumphed in Sweden. That Brazilian team was truly amazing, probably one of the best teams of all time, if we consider individual skill, and their 4-2-4 formation on the field gave them a tactical advantage over their opponents.
However, this was before the rise of the major European football nations - at that time, West Germany and the Netherlands had not yet fully professionalized their championships, and England was hampered by existing maximum salary restrictions. When things settled down, things became much more difficult for the Brazilians.
Actually - after the 1958 championship, in the World Cups on European soil that followed, Brazil's matches against European teams have not been very favorable. In 18 matches, they won 8, drew in 3, lost in 7, scored 23 goals and conceded 24. Of those eight wins, the Brazilians only won by more than two goals in two matches - a result of 2-0 against Bulgaria in 1966 and 4-1 against Scotland in 1982.
Applying the same test to another South American giant, Argentina, the results are very similar: in 19 meetings, they achieved 5 wins, 7 draws, and suffered 7 losses, scored 20 goals and conceded 21. It seems that South Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to play against Europeans, however, recent trends in the football world may significantly reduce this problem.
First, refereeing standards are becoming more harmonized than they were decades ago, focusing more on the protection of players with greater skill and technique, most of whom are from South America. Second, what is probably most important, these days almost all the best Brazilian and Argentine players play for European clubs, so they are becoming more familiar with their opponents' style of play.
On the other hand, these factors already existed in the 1998 World Cup in France, where Brazil had a hard time against European teams - they barely managed to beat Scotland in the group stage, unexpectedly lost to Norway, only narrowly defeated Denmark in the quarterfinals, won against the Netherlands in the semifinals in a penalty shootout, and had to acknowledge the overwhelming superiority of the host French team in the final. Meanwhile, Argentina only managed to defeat England in the penalty shootout and later lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.
Therefore, in the fight between the two continents, there awaits another challenge - the 2006 World Cup in Germany. South Americans will face many obstacles, unfavorable historical context, but if they can deal with the task at hand and win the championship, even the most devoted European football fan may have to admit that the home of football is beyond the Atlantic.
