[S.T.D.]

I may be wrong, but i think i know why.

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Most of South Africa has elevations of over 914m (3,000 ft) and at least 40% of the surface is at an elevation of over 1,220m (4,000 ft). Parts of Johannesburg are 1,829m (6,000 ft) above sea level. Resembling an inverted saucer, the land rises steadily from west to east to the Drakensberg Mountains, the tallest of which is Mont-aux-Sources at 3,300m (10,823 ft).
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European Countries
Germany
Average 115 feet (35 metres) above sea level.

Spain
Spain is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the West and the Mediterranean Sea on the East. That puts it at sea level.

England
Average 150m above sea level.

Italy
The national average is about 240 meters above sea level

Holland
Average 20m above sea level

France
Average 30m above sea level

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If we compare to South American Countries

Brazil
Terrain lies between 200-800m

Argentina
Lowest - 105m, highest 6,960m

Uruguay
Average 200m

Paraguay
Terrain lies between 55-700m
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I do notice during Dutch vs Japan match, the Dutch players looks very sluggish, vast difference when they were playing Mexico and Ghana in friendly match prior the World Cup.

I maybe wrong lah

[Beerinkol]

You go Genting about 2 km about sea level. If you jogging will you feel any different others than cool climate. No right.
Unless we talk about above 3km from sea level only starting feel little different. Even
when hiking Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia which is above 4km also no need oxygen tank.

[softy54534]

You go Genting about 2 km about sea level. If you jogging will you feel any different others than cool climate. No right.
Unless we talk about above 3km from sea level only starting feel little different. Even
when hiking Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia which is above 4km also no need oxygen tank.

Not sure how footballers reacts if play at Genting lah, haha.... But La Paz at Bolivia, which is at 3,660m above sea level, is a place where Brazilians and Argentina can also lost, neighboring countries hates playing there, LOL

[Beerinkol]

The mind game between coaches in football is one of the my favourite aspects of the game. The same techniques which you use to analyse what civil servants and politicans say/do can be used to analyse and understand what the coaches say/do.

If you take a step back and rewind the matches in your mind, you can see that most of the weaker teams are using the tactics mde famous by Greece during their conquest of Europe. The coaches of these weaker teams have taken it and refined it to levels beyond what the Greeks had previously achieved.

So far, the stronger European teams have been having problems with these tactics. IMHO, the coaches with the best tactics in overcoming it are those who played serious mind games against their opponents and won. These are:

Argentina - Basically Mr Hand-of-God played the ref. By making comments about rough tackles, he put the refs on notice that he would complain loudly if they don't their job and ensure a clean match. He then set up his team in attack formation and repeatedly attacked. Since it was his team that was repeatedly going forward, strict refeering favoured him as it enahnced his chances of getting a penalty. It obviously worked and the ref was extremely "on the ball" for the match. The USA-Solvenia game was an unexpected casualty. Beyond the disallowed goal, the ref for that match was trigger happy with his cards which racked up the unhappiness of how he was handling the game. FIFA has signalled disapproval by stating that they are going to do a reveiw of the ref decisions for that match. You can see the immidiate impact of way matches yesterday were refereed.

Netherlands - Here they played the Japanese coach. They got their star striker to make mean remarks about eating sushi to goad the Japanese team and hint they would be adopting an all out attack strategy like Argentina. When the game started, they deployed a strange defensive formation and played at an ultra slow pace. This unbalanced the Japan coach who appeared to have prepared for a relentless attack. To the credit of the Japanese coach, he did not take the bait and launch an attack, adopting a wait and see instead. During the second half, Netherlands changed tactics and went into attack mode. The sudden change in tempo and speed caught the Japanese by surprise and resulted in the game's only goal. What the Netherlands coach didn't count on was the rigorous attempt by the Japanese team to chase the game. He was hoping they would be disoriented and allow his side maybe to sneak in a 2nd goal. Instead they went at his team like a mad sushi chef with twin Ginsu knives. In hindsight, those unkind sushi comments might have played a part. Maybe next time when he plays mind games, he might want to do it in such a way as not to insult the other side and inspire such a fanatical response.

[Lillie_Steins]

Actually Alamaking is somehow right in his analysis regarding the sea level which somehow affects the player's performance on the pitch if they are not accustomed to it.

Players in the south America continent have a slight advantage over the european teams. The european teams do not score late goals as easily as the other teams more used to this terrain.

[Beerinkol]

So far, no South American team has yet to lose a game.

[doctorzlo]

this is first time south amercian countries do so well outside south amercia

why?

brazil never won world cup in europe

why?

why euro team do very badly in south africa

why?

I know why now.

They are used to play right side up, and not upside down like now, south america team always play upside down. The euro team are no used to be playing upside down. In europe, they are right side up on the globe, now they are upside down.

[Ifroham4]

this is first time south amercian countries do so well outside south amercia

why?

brazil never won world cup in europe

why?

why euro team do very badly in south africa

why?

I know why now.

They are used to play right side up, and not upside down like now, south america team always play upside down. The euro team are no used to be playing upside down. In europe, they are right side up on the globe, now they are upside down.

Brazil (upside down) won the World Cup in Sweden 1958, Mexico 1970, USA 1994 and Korea/Japan 2002. All right-side up countries. Argentina (upside down) also won the World Cup in Mexico 1986 (right-side up). But it's true that European countries (right-side up) have never won it in upside down countries.