The World Cup was Good, But it Ain't Been Great Since '98

A good final it most certainly was not. But a bad tournament? Difficult to say, with soccer being as subjective as it is. I personally have watched every World Cup since Spain 1982 and have watched most of the important games from almost every World Cup before that. I can honestly say the World Cup (in my opinion) has never had a bad tournament.

This is partly because we have to wait four long years for it, but it's also because it's a completely unique experience in that it's the most popular sport in the world and everybody gets to take part. Even if your country fails to qualify, there will always be a reason for you to watch, whether it's another country you like or some of your favourite players taking part. Either way, it will find a way to keep you entertained.

All that being said, some World Cups are obviously more entertaining than others. For me, I shall never forget the Brazilian team from Spain '82. Paulo Falcao, Zico, Eder, Junior, and of course, the 40-cigarettes-a-day legend that is Dr. Socrates. These guys were amazing, the style of soccer they played was far beyond anything I've seen since, and yet even they came unstuck when they ran into Italy's favourite match-fixing cheat (look it up), Paolo Rossi.

That match between Italy and Brazil was one of the greatest matches ever played and it was played after a long season during a very hot Spanish summer. Rossi had barely kicked a ball in the two years prior to the tournament. The point here is that all this was played out at THE WORLD CUP. In 1986, we had the genius of Diego Maradona and his infamous Hand of God moment in one game against England in the quarterfinal.

At Italia 1990, a tournament which is generally considered to be of poor quality, we saw the emergence of the great Roberto Baggio and Cameroon becoming the first African nation to make the quarterfinal (and they were only about eight minutes short of making the semifinal). There were two dramatic semifinal penalty shootouts, Frank Rijkaard spitting in Rudi Voller's hair, and I could go on.

At USA 1994, we saw the brilliance of Baggio once again, dragging Italy all the way to the final by himself. (And then we saw him miss the sudden death penalty kick that lost it for them. How cruel.) We also saw a rejuvenated Diego Maradona leading Argentina into the second round before he fell foul of a random drug test. The brilliant Gheorge Hagi led Romania into the quarterfinal after winning a fantastic game against the Argentines before coming up short against Sweden and a young Henrik Larsson.

And who can forget the free scoring Brazillians, Romario and Bebeto? Lots of goals and one very famous celebration. All this was played out in front of record crowds and it was such a positive experience that it led directly to the creation of MLS two years later.

At France 1998, the World Cup got its first real look at Ronaldo, who would go on to become the leading goal scorer in World Cup history. We saw two of the greatest goals ever scored at any World Cup, the 18-year-old Michael Owen's run-and-shoot against Argentina and the sublime Dennis Bergkamp's control and finish against the same team a round later. We had our first experience of Beckham-mania (good and bad) and of course the host nation and the brilliant Zinedine Zidane won the trophy and united a country (for a while) that had and still has real issues about race and immigration.

But now we get to the last three World Cups. I cannot say there were no great games—there were. Senegal versus Uruguay from 2002, Mexico versus Argentina from 2006, and maybe a couple of others, but it is mostly just a handful of moments. South Korea beating Italy and Senegal beating France in 2002, Maxi Rodriguez's goal against Mexico in 2006, Asamoah Gyan's penalty miss against Uruguay in this year's quarterfinal.

There are, I am sure, more moments that I just cannot remember as I write this, but the point is clear. I am finding them difficult to remember because there were just not that many of them.

The earlier World Cups I spoke of had moments I remember instantly (and I could have mentioned a whole lot more) and it's the ease and fondness of remembering that separates them from the last three. So why is that?  Again, this point is subjective, but the obvious thing that has changed in the last 15 years is the amount of money in the game today. The Champions League was created in 1992 and the Premier League in England followed a year later—bring on the money.

These two competitions have changed the way football is consumed around the world. The world's best players can be seen in both of these soccer fast food joints. Marketing, merchandising, and global television rights have sent players' wages soaring. There was a time when the soccer you saw played at the World Cup was the best soccer you saw being played anywhere. Not anymore. 

In 1995, the Bosman ruling changed soccer dramatically. It is best known for allowing out-of-contract players move to other clubs without a transfer fee, thus greatly inflating a player's salary demands at the negotiating table. But the the real power of the Bosman Ruling was the elimination of quotas against European Union Nationals playing for other European clubs.

What this meant was that players from EU member states were no longer considered foreigners while playing for clubs in other EU member states. This, of course, meant that rich European clubs could now buy as many great players as their wallets would allow—this, in turn, greatly increased the quality of soccer on the European continent, which, in turn, increased its value as a commodity for commercial purposes. And so, the game became awash with television money, and players became multimillionaires.

All of this great marketing, huge salaries, and high-quality play led to bigger rewards, more fans, greater pressure, intense media scrutiny, and of course, superstardom. Today, every player playing in the big European League is primarily concerned with his club and how much money he can earn. Consequently, some players begin to consider playing for their national team as an experience with lots of risks and not many rewards. (What if I get injured? The fans will hate me if I fail. My club's fans don't do that...etc.) National teams don't pay players their wages, which also irritates the players' clubs, because they are worried about losing one of their valuable assets to injury while on international duty.

All in all, it has made playing for your country not as desirable as it once was. If you are a superstar midfield player who looks great every week playing with other great players, which in turn makes you look even better, it must be at least mildly upsetting when you have to play with not-so-great players who make you look worse (just ask Frank Lampard).

However, hope is on the horizon. People in high places have noticed this, and I hope they are formulating a plan to make the World Cup great again. Maybe they will give players longer rest periods so they are well-rested before tournaments, or maybe they could stop changing the ball every four years so the players don't have to get used to it first. That way, they might be able to string three passes together.

Personally, I think it's easy. Just play players who actually want to be there. Maybe the big superstars need a break from playing for their country. You never know, they might actually start to miss it.