I've been thinking for a while that South American teams are simply overrated, and this WC results have again proved that they have been underperforming

Uruguay- 2 wins, but far far from impressive. They remind me of Atletico, narrow wins, we will see how they manage to do against Russia. Not to mention, it is the easiest group in the tournament..

Peru- Hard done against Denmark, deserved at least a draw imo, same for France game, really unlucky.

Argentina- Poor team unit, pretty much describes their problems, not indivudual players

Brazil- Only really good for 20 minutes in first game and last 20 minutes in second game. A huge favourite that hasn't really impressed.

Colombia- Poor against Japan, though the 10 man did not help. We will see more of them though

What I've noticed is that not all these teams have good units, which shows. Argentina had a harder group but were still expected to go through. At the moment, they are bottom.I honestly feel that the only somewhat overrated team in South America is Chile, and they aren't even in the World Cup. They deserved both Copa America and they would have won the CC if Diaz did not make that mistake, they were all over Germany.

Thoughts on South America teams, which one will go far in the World cup?

Yes and No.
Colombia and Uruguay are aging, Colombia’s early red card prevents us from giving final opinion on them but their star players Falcao-James-Cuadrado are not in optimal form. Uruguay is Uruguay, solid at the back, scores one to advance.
Brazil are lacking rythme, the intensity of first games aren’t World Cup ones, maybe pressure or lack of optimal preparation caused this but they can only get better.
Peru are unlucky, and ineffective, they couldn’t find Guerrero who’s having a poor World Cup, pleased by Cueva and they got a world class RW, but it wasn’t enough.
Argentina is a mess, they are managed like a kid classroom, should have started rebuilding years ago. They end up with Mascerano again and some horrendous tactics... imo, the coaches there do not have much power to rebuild and the pressure on them make them do the same mistakes. They still have a final game to play.

Brazil have won the cup a record 5 times ... They are also the only team to qualify for every WC.

South American teams almost exclusively never win World Cups when it's played in Europe.
But so far nobody is really showing much, South American or not, you got the current World Champions that lost first game and barely won vs Sweden.

Brazil is the only South American team to win a cup on European soil, so they historically struggle with conditions, travel, ect...

This cup is upside down with lots of the big boys underperforming. ie Germany.

Brazil will get better.

too much inconsistencies in this tournament, I wouldn't be surprised now if teams like england or belgium can make it to semi

I would say yes !

Define overrated... what standards and whose standard?

I'd still say Argentina is overrated, Colombia performed great and so did Uruguay, even their style is kinda Atletico like. Let's see what will Brazil show today.

have the answer today: uruguay defeats the european champion. as a whole south america, no. if it's brazil and argentina then there is some case to make.

Well... Is Italy, Germany (and Spain) overrated? I don't think you can judge them all like that and should instead look at each nation separately. And my answer is that some are overrated and some not.

thebaldgenius

Yeah, Uruguay have a really good team, and they have really impressed me in their last two performances as well. Suarez is still the best ST in the world, after Ronaldo.

Marcus2011

Well, perhaps underperforming to their standards. Argentina before the tournament were expected QF as minimum, but they failed to achieve that, and scraped through their group. Brazil don't look flawless but win, and Colombua are still a mystery imo. We will see about them tommorow.

Pelle

Valid point, reason I pointed at SA teams specifically was because of the hype they were getting before the WC began, but yes I agree that all those teams under performed for their standards.

Overrated is quite a big word. Definitely not overrated. Unlike you, I am impressed by Uruguay actually. I gave them no chance against Portugal but they did win and deserve. And them not conceding at the group stage, impressive yet. I expect them too eliminate France but Mbappe vs Uruguay defence will be the decider.

Brazil were slow and boring. But, they still get those wins, don't they? Their name is enough so I will remove them from my list of overrated teams.

Argentina were poor. They were also lucky to qualify so not really in the standards.

Peru were quite unlucky. Unfortunate for them. But you gotta score, that's how you win, even if you are unlucky. They should've beaten Denmark.

I'll see Colombia after today against England. I didn't watch their game against Poland but I think the reason of the scoreline was Poland being sh^t.

what...lol. stupidest thread on here. you can't be overrated if you qualified for a tournament. they earned the right to play. that goes for any country, from any continent. they beat other teams to get there. if you played poorly, now that's a different issue.

Emrecan_58

Hey man, long time no see. How are you doing? Anyways, I agree with Uruguay, they switched their team up against Russia and they played excellent football getting 2 very good results. The ST can sometimes be wasteful but a very good side. To be fair I did make this thread before the two games, let's see how they do against France. I don't even consider France favourites, Uruguay have just as much of a chance.

Brazil were poor, they were expected to get to final minimum, but they are having their own problems. Even if they beat Belguim, Uruguay and France is waiting, not easy at all. Good team, bad chemistry

Agreed on the rest also.

Gonzi

True, but to be fair many people and pundit expected all the SA teams to go through. Based on continents, I think 10 teams went through out of 14, whereas 0 out of 5 went for Africa.

Argentina isn't overrated in my eyes. I rated them same as they were in their qualification. It was injustice that they went through to final format instead of Chile thus their performance has showed.

@Gonzi

you can't be overrated if you qualified for a tournament. they earned the right to play. that goes for any country, from any continent. they beat other teams to get there.

+1000

I love how threads and opinions change as time moves forward. haha :)

@Darth What I love the most are poll about what team is gonna win a game and when it change after we know which team won. XD

Concerning overrated, Portugal was also very criticized in 2016 because they were far from impressive (true), but they still won.

yes

But you could argue that European teams are overrated as well.