# Another World Cup inspired question: Are national teams better than local teams? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 12, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904 "2010-06-12T09:56:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/21 "2010-06-13T11:26:11Z")
> [@charlie145](#): > > The current Spanish side is probably closest to a top domestic team but teams like Brazil, Argentina and England have some great players but are weak in other areas. A top domestic side has strength across the board as well as strength in depth. As much as I love England I have to admit that man for man they are weaker than most of the top domestic sides. I don’t agree. I think the current England side would easily be competing for the English Premiership title - it’s essentially drawn from the best players of the top English clubs. Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Walcott and Rooney all start for one of the traditional Big 4 English clubs, and even the ‘ringers’ are players like Barry, King, Carragher, Crouch and Joe Hart, who start for clubs challenging for the Champions League. The idea that the current England team couldn’t compete at the top of Premiership seems ridiculous to me - the players are all drawn from those same teams _at_ the top of Premiership. It doesn’t make any sense. > [@](#): > > International teams have the superstars but they also have the guys who ‘make up the numbers’, domestic sides aren’t so limited and can have top class players in every position. I have heard the subject discussed by the media many times and the result is always the same, domestic teams are stronger than international. I’ve never heard that conclusion in the media. Where did you hear that? It seems a pretty unanimous sentiment to me that the current Spain side is about as good as any domestic club team in the world right now. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/22 "2010-06-13T11:29:57Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I know it’s a little bit unfair at the moment, but how do you resolve the continuous English keeper problem? By paying 30 million euros for a decent foreign keeper to be willing to naturalize? > > This may sound a little snarky, but this is the main problem for national teams. You have to take what you have. And by the same token, if a club wanted to assemble the current Spain squad, or even the England squad, they’d have to spend hundreds of millions on them. National teams get them for free. It’s swings and roundabouts. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/23 "2010-06-13T11:34:26Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > I don’t agree. I think the current England side would easily be competing for the English Premiership title - it’s essentially drawn from the best players of the top English clubs. Johnson, Ferdinand, Terry, Ashley Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, Walcott and Rooney all start for one of the traditional Big 4 English clubs, and even the ‘ringers’ are players like Barry, King, Carragher, Crouch and Joe Hart, who start for clubs challenging for the Champions League. The idea that the current England team couldn’t compete at the top of Premiership seems ridiculous to me - the players are all drawn from those same teams _at_ the top of Premiership. It doesn’t make any sense. You missed last night’s game then? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/24 "2010-06-13T11:38:35Z")
For me, the fact that you can’t spend your way to success is one of the joys of international football, of which the World Cup is the pinnacle. Club-level allegiances always seem kind of arbitrary to me, when you consider that they are all-star teams brought in from anywhere and everywhere. I don’t understand how people can be passionate supporters of, say, Manchester United when hardly any of the players come from anywhere near Manchester (maybe because neither do half of the supporters ;)). Whereas something like Algeria vs. Slovenia, which is in play right now - maybe it’s not going to be the highest quality football, but I totally get why people in those countries care about it, and that makes it seem more important to a neutral like me. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/25 "2010-06-13T11:57:51Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > something like Algeria vs. Slovenia, which is in play right now OK, bad example, because this game is a stinker. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/26 "2010-06-13T12:00:04Z")
It’s a bit scrappy, but they are all eager enough. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/27 "2010-06-13T17:20:00Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Imho, this is the reason the US has been horrible in international basketball for so long. Pre-Dream Team, the US national team met around February and trained for 4-6 months before the Olympics. What the heck are you talking about? February? Do you have any cite whatsoever to back this up? Pre Dream Team the US Olympic team was made up of college players - their tryouts for the team were in late May or early June. In February they’d be knee deep into their conference schedule. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/28 "2010-06-13T18:37:54Z")
Looking at the English premier league, England probably aren’t as good as Man Utd, Chelsea or Arsenal, but are probably stronger than Aston Villa, Tottenham and Man City. Tottenham came 4th this year, and the backbone of their team are England ‘B’ players. But a club team has the advantage of playing together every week, while international tournaments come at the end of a long domestic season, making it harder for international teams to get the best out of their players. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904/29 "2010-06-14T08:05:23Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > The idea that the current England team couldn’t compete at the top of Premiership seems ridiculous to me - the players are all drawn from those same teams _at_ the top of Premiership. It doesn’t make any sense. But whilst those teams at the top of the Premiership do field England players, they also have the ability to plug any weak spots with world-class foreigners. England doesn’t have that luxury. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-world-cup-inspired-question-are-national-teams-better-than-local-teams/542904.md?page=1)