If Saudi Arabia beat two-times World Cup winners Messi - enriched Argentina, Japan conquer four-times World Champions football superpower Germany, Iran come up with demolition of 2016 Euro semi-finalist Wales, South Korea is ending the match with a draw against twice World Champion Uruguay!
Moving to Africa, we had seen Morocco and Tunisia ending the match with goalless draw against reigning World runners-up Croatia and last Euro semifinalist Denmark respectively. And now Morocco stuns the World No 1 team Belgium which is filled with stars of various elite European clubs. Cameroon drawing with Serbia is also not a mean feat.
From the Americas, if USA draws with past World Champion England; Ecuador produces the same result against 2010 World Cup runners-up Netherlands.
It is not known how many of these teams would reach the higher echelons of knockout stages in this version; but it has become crystal clear that not only have they ceased to be "push-overs" any more who were much bullied by the global powers of the game previously, rather the "unglamorous" outfits of the game have acquired potential enough to upset the applecart of the overhyped teams of the world.
While the "snob" brigade might feel "nauseating" in the upcoming of the "proletariat"; but true connoisseurs of the game feel overjoyed in this comparative democratisation of football with the erstwhile "dictatorship" of the handful of superpowers from Western Europe and South America having been called into question.
Surely, this positive change has arrived due to the "globalisation" of the game thanks to the "import" and "export" of football players and coaches all across the world.
If talented players from Japan or Senegal are trading their skills in best of the clubs of Spain, Germany, Italy, France or England; coaches from Brazil, Argentina, or Uruguay are guiding the upcoming footballers of Asia or Africa. This continuous intermingling of skills knowledge and experience are indeed playing a major role behind the emergence of a new global order in soccer arena.
Also, it proves that if necessary exposure and adequate opportunities to prosper gets awarded; any nation, any individual can create wonders in every possible field, dismissing all class-conscious exclusive talks of "Genes", "Brain", etc. After all, at the end of the day, the ultimate reality remains that God has created the whole human race in absolute equal terms.
(The views expressed are personal)
