Americas, Asia up; Europe, Africa down

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea Times intern

South, Central, and North American teams look promising among the 32 squads from all continents and Asian teams boast an overall improvement in their campaigns. In contrast, European and African countries are coming up with surprisingly disappointing performances after everyone has completed two games in their World Cup groups.

Leading the race is a group of South American countries _ Brazil, Argentina Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay _ with high chances of advancing to the knockout round atop their groups.

Combined, they have claimed eight wins in 10 games, with no losses as Uruguay and Paraguay have each drawn once.

Title favorites Brazil and Argentina are among the tournament front runners with two wins each, with Chile matching them, beating both Honduras and Switzerland.

Chile may not be in the spotlight as much as its two compatriots, but FIFA's 18th-ranked team will be seen as a real threat if it rallies past FIFA ranked No. 2 Spain in its last group match.

Among the North and Central American teams, the United States showed it should no longer be underrated in world football.

The U.S. team was unlucky not to book their place in the last 16, having to settle for a 2-2 draw with Slovenia. The Americans controversially had a third goal ruled out by referee Koman Coulibaly, which sparked harsh criticism of the Mali official.

As super-rich European league giants indulge in luring top-class players to their ranks with a mountain of money, a number of South American stars have left for Champions League clubs, leaving vacancies in the domestic leagues.

Such voids have been were successfully filled by young local talent, giving their national squads a better combination of experienced overseas-based players and ever-growing domestic ones.

Europe may have enjoyed success in its local leagues in the past few years, with top players gathering from all around the world, but it looks as if that hasn't benefited their national teams _ at least from what has been seen in the group matches so far.

The 13 European teams have a 10-8-8 record overall, not impressive enough considering its prestigious standing. Traditional powerhouses such as Spain, Italy, Germany, England and France are suffering a drought of victories, with only Spain and Germany claiming a win each.

Italy and England suffered embarrassing 1-1 and 0-0 draws with New Zealand and Algeria, respectively. France, the 2006 runner-up, is in danger of a first-round elimination after losing 2-0 to Mexico.

European nations are blamed for their lack of nurturing youngsters in their own leagues.

Even some of the wins caused fans to turn a cold shoulder to their teams with subpar performances.

The Netherlands secured a spot in the knockout round by beating Japan 1-0, but many fans say Japan was more impressive throughout the game while the Dutch were "just a bit luckier."

The struggling of African representatives, with a 1-4-7 mark, is obvious proof they have not made the best of their home advantage as Ghana has the only win so far against Serbia.

Asian sides display better overall results, posting a combined 2-3-5 record. In spite of Australia's faltering campaign, South Korea and Japan are looking to another joint advancement to the round of 16 since they did so at the 2002 tournament held on their home turf.

Elsewhere, New Zealand, which is making its the first appearance in 28 years, is definitely one of the most impressive teams so far in terms of better-than-expected results.

The No. 78 team proved its 1-1 opening draw against Slovakia was not sheer luck, shocking to Italy by holding the defending champion to another 1-1 draw.