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During this World Cup, so many teams have attempted to be things they are traditionally not. This drive to renovate playing styles has been at the cost of three of the game’s tenants: the teams, themselves; their supporters; and the millions of spectators all around the world.

The World Cup tournament is a place where individual nations can compete. Each nation brings with them their own distinctive attributes, idiosyncrasies and manners.

And spectators and fans eagerly watch as each nation’s styles are matched and compared through competition.

It is not all about who can simply score the most goals.

It is game against game.
Culture against culture. 

So when the nations do not play in accordance to these traditions, this sense of unique competition and rivalry is lost.

And this has regularly occurred during this world cup – with usually damning results.

As mentioned earlier in the week in this column, the Italians chose to favour a more foreign long-ball approach, rather than stick to their more traditional style of a catenaccio variation.

Although this newly adopted style by the Italians was not as dour or slow as it has been previously, it proved tedious, obvious and largely ineffective – and subsequently, they were eliminated at the group stage.

England was another nation that sought to change its culture.

With a perception that Britain’s traditional fast-paced, long game was not up to international standard, they chose to chase the highly decorated club coach, Fabio Capello.

Capello chose to instil the old mainland-European qualities of discipline, technical-prowess, and an amoral, win-at-all-cost mentality.

The result was that the players were playing something mostly foreign to them, and when the pressure was on – always a factor for English players – they could not play to their best because, simply, they were not comfortable.

This is not totally the coach’s fault. Nor is it entirely the players.

To truly change a mindset or completely renovate a playing style, a coach must have his players for an extreme amount of time. At club level this is obviously possible, but when speaking of national squads, it is a different kettle of fish.

Capello needs a hell of a lot more time with his players than a training camp once every few months to truly get long-lasting, desirable results. Anything less and ugly eliminations ensure, such as those experienced two days ago.

But the transformation of teams in not solely limited to Europe.

The African nations of yesteryear used to represent a contagious air of excitement, exuberance, and fun.

But in recent years, these nations have been buoyed by solid international performances and slowly chose to adopt more European styles of play. The main focus drifted from cheeky creativity towards staunch defending and explicit discipline.

Hence, their games become less-exciting and less-watchable.

However, one African country that welcomingly broke this trend was the host nation, South Africa.

Their experienced Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira, chose to embrace and advocate the traditional African style of play – one that has been warmly nicknamed “village football.”

And although South Africa fell cruelly short of progressing through to the next round, they played better than most of the other African nations and entertained throughout. They became the neutral supporter’s favourite – like the African teams of old.

Another nation that has surprised us thus far in the tournament is the Dutch – not in their solid results but their approach.

Now playing a more traditional-Italian-esque style, they are a far cry of the offensive, lively, and fast-paced Netherlands of old.

But although their games have not been the greatest to watch, they have progressed to the final eight and have set themselves up for what could just be their first World Cup trophy.

But at what cost?

Maybe they are ingeniously timing their run. I keep on expecting to see their players snap out of it and triumphantly return to their gallivanting, cavaliering style of old.

So in conclusion, we must seek to bring back a variety of cultures and traditions in the playing styles of world soccer. It will make the players more comfortable and in turn, games will be more engaging.

Counter-attacking Italians, exciting English, cheeky Africans, and progressive Dutchmen.
Like the good old days.

Results:

Spain defeated Portugal 1-0:
David Villa once again showed why he is arguably the best striker in the world. In Australia, it is hard to watch many club games from Spain, so one half-forgets his impact whenever a new international tournament begins. This time, Villa was able to regain his own shot, after a save from the Portuguese keeper, and hurriedly chip the ball past the underside of the crossbar and across the goal-line.
From then on Portugal could only manage limited chances, as Spain’s ball-movement and controlling possession was far too superior, meaning Cristiano Ronaldo’s boys were sent packing.

Paraguay defeated Japan 5-3 on penalties:
Penalty shoot-out! Penalty shoot-out! Man, we loooove penalty shoot-outs!
After a goalless 90 minutes and a further stalemate 30 minutes of extra time, it was time for the most exhilarating and cruellest decider in world sport. And it was the Paraguayans who progressed, overcoming the Japanese 5-3, and setting up a date with Spain in the next round.

Netherlands defeated Slovakia 2-1:
The Dutch seemed to dominate play, without adding much distance between them and the Slovakians on the scoreboard. In a great display, attacking winger Arjen Robben was able to put all the injury concerns behind him and score one of his trademark ‘run, prop, and strike’ goals. If he can regain optimum match-fitness, expect him to be an extremely important player in the final eight.
Dirk Kuyt and Wesley Sneijder combined on the 85^th minute for the latter to score and to ice the game. The Slovakians only managed a small consolation goal when Robert Vittek was able to score a penalty - adding one more to his goal tally this tournament.

Brazil defeated Chile 3-0:
Brazil set up a quarter-final clash with the Dutch after powerfully disposing of an attacking Chile. A powerful header from central defender Juan and a Luis Fabiano strike gave the Brazilians a 2-0 lead at halftime. And it was Robinho, who on the hour mark, was able to curl a shot home to cap off a quality performance.                                                            

Quarter-final fixtures:
Uruguay v Ghana
Argentina v Germany
Netherlands v Brazil
Paraguay v Spain