This is a claim that is often made (even after Spain winning in SA), but if you look at the semi finalists (or top 4) in the last few non-european worldcups*:
1986: Belgium, France, Germany and Argentina
1994: Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria and Brazil
2002: Turkey, Germany, South Korea (we all remember that) and Brazil
2010: Spain, Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay
So with the exception of 2002, 3 European teams and one South American team.
*78 worked with two group stages where one of the second groups was all European and the other almost all South American; so automatically one of each in the final and one of each in the third place playoff.
I think most of these “x happens in y% of World Cups” things are questionable because the sample size is too small. I saw one once about how two thirds of finals have been won by the team wearing darker shorts, or darker socks if the shorts were the same…
Follow-up question – they were just showing the lineups for the noon match, and I see an Iranian player has a yellow card next to his name. Does that mean he’s already received one in a previous match? And if so, does that carry over into this one? I know you said “two yellows in the same match”, but I can’t seem much of a reason to show that if they don’t carry over.
Two yellows in group play will result in suspension for the following game. It’s not the same as a red, as the player isn’t sent off, and they can be subbed for in the following game.
For the most part, Iran hasn’t been expending too much energy in attack, but on a couple of occasions they’ve put some nice shots on goal, and Argentina have Romero to thank for some very nice saves, especially the one off Dejagah’s header.
That was a pretty terrible performance, saved at the last possible minute. Needless to say, if Argentina don’t find some answers (and possibly bench Kun Agüero), the will get slaughtered in the quarterfinals (IIRC, they have an exceptionally easy path to the quarterfinals).
