Club World Cup: Is European soccer’s superiority being exposed as a myth? - Yahoo Sports

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — European soccer’s superiority had, throughout the 21st century, become self-evident; inescapable and irreversible; extreme and presumed. It was apparent in the salaries and prices of players, in the exodus of talent from the Americas and Africa, in the prestige of the UEFA Champions League and, twice per year, on the field. At the former Club World Cup, the seven-team version played each winter, since 2007, European teams played 34 games. They lost once.

So they strolled into this expanded version, the 2025 Club World Cup, as heavy favorites. They negotiated outsize appearance fees. Their supporters assumed they’d waltz to the latter stages, untouched.

Instead, halfway through the group stage, they’ve been humbled.

In six games so far against South American opposition, they’ve lost two, drawn three, won one (finally, on Friday, thanks to Bayern Munich).

They have also dropped seven points to the Saudi Pro League, MLS and Liga MX.

Their early stumbles have delighted fans from other continents. They’ve surprised Western pundits. And they’ve ignited provocative debate around a simple question: Is the supposed supremacy of European clubs a myth?

'They are good teams too'

On one side, there are the raw results and the performances here over the past week. Flamengo didn’t just beat Chelsea 3-1 on Friday in Philadelphia; at times, it pummeled the free-spending English Premier League giants. And Fluminense — Brazil's 13th best team last year — didn’t just hold Borussia Dortmund to a 0-0 draw; it outplayed what was, a month ago, the hottest team in Germany.

In almost every single match between South American and European foes, there was evidence that the gap is slimmer than most Europeans (and non-Hispanic Americans) realize. Botafogo’s upset of PSG was a so-called “smash-and-grab,” but even smash-and-grabs require a certain level of physical, technical and tactical quality. Boca Juniors, similarly, bellied up to Bayern Munich on Friday and snatched a second-half equalizer, before conceding late. It was a “really tough game,” Bayern’s Harry Kane said postgame.

Flamengo players celebrate during their statement win over Chelsea at the 2025 Club World Cup in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

There was also Monterrey 1, Inter Milan 1; and Al Hilal 1, Real Madrid 1, “a very balanced match,” as Al Hilal fullback João Cancelo said afterward.

On paper, per Opta, these were games between the 9th best team in the world and the 81st; between No. 15 and No. 238; No. 4 and 132; No. 7 and 131; No. 6 and 130; No. 8 and 77. On the field, though, they looked very different, and begged the question: Is Opta wrong?

Are the assumptions of European preeminence wrong?

Were we all wrong?

For four-and-a-half decades, after all, from 1960 until 2004, when the champions of South America and Europe met in the now-defunct Intercontinental Cup, the South Americans won 22; the Europeans won 21. Europe’s subsequent commercialization of the sport has seemingly shifted the balance of power, or at least wealth, but … perhaps the on-field gap never really widened?

At this new-look Club World Cup, which everyone agrees is a better indicator than the old one, “the South American teams have caused big problems for some of the European teams,” Kane said, and perhaps the explanation is simple. As Kane’s teammate, Konrad Laimer, said: “Because they are good teams, too. Football is football.”

The European excuses

On the other side of the debate, however, there are excuses — or at least other explanations, some legitimate.

There is the timing of this tournament, which falls at the end of 10-month European seasons, but mid-campaign for clubs from Brazil, Argentina and MLS. Whereas South American teams built up to the Club World Cup, weary European bodies and minds were ready to wind down. Most got a couple weeks off before reconvening with teammates 7-10 days before their Club World Cup openers, or after an international window. “There are many tournaments that they’ve had to play, and perhaps they’ll arrive with some fatigue,” Inter Miami forward Luis Suarez predicted before the competition began. “I think there will be some surprise results.”

There is also the suffocating U.S. summer heat, which has seemed to affect European teams more than others.

“We are used to the heat,” Al Hilal’s Brazilian winger Malcom said after his team hung with Real Madrid on a humid 90-degree afternoon in suburban Miami. Atlético Madrid’s Spanish midfielder Marcos Llorente, on the other hand, called an 88-degree afternoon in Southern California “impossible.”

There is travel to which the Europeans aren’t accustomed. There are distant time zones, and games that kick off after all their friends and family back home are asleep. There are all sorts of confounding variables that preclude the Club World Cup from being an accurate point of comparison.

And most of all, there is the unavoidable sense, or narrative, that the European teams just don’t really care.

Many players do, to be clear. But do they care, with every last ounce of their being, like some of their South American counterparts do?

There has undoubtedly been an intensity gap that has neutralized the quality gap, and helped some South American sides show well. To them, these games are among the most significant in recent club history. To the Europeans, the Champions League and, in some cases, their domestic leagues were and are more prestigious.

Public attitudes toward the Club World Cup have also colored this excuse. While European fans have stayed home, and in some cases slept through games, supporters of South American and North African clubs have filled stadiums with balloons, flags, banners and unceasing noise.

“We’ve all been a part of big moments; this is still something totally different,” Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany said Friday after experiencing the locura of Boca fans.

Kane confirmed: “It felt like an away game out there.”

That, too, is an equalizing factor.

The conclusion

None of that entirely explains the upsets. But there is nuance in the conclusion that the gap between Europe and the rest of the world is somewhat narrower than many thought — because there are also gaps within Europe and within that other broad category.

There is a massive gulf, for example, between Bayern Munich, which ultimately outclassed Boca here on Friday night; and Porto, which finished third in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, closer to fourth-place Braga than to the top two.

There is also a sizable gulf between Palmeiras or Flamengo, the two most powerful teams in South America’s richest league, and most of the other non-European challengers at this Club World Cup.

What we probably overestimated was the distance between the Portos and the Inter Miamis; between the Dortmunds and the Fluminenses; between the Benficas and Bocas; between the Chelseas and the Flamengos. Most of the teams Porto and Benfica play, weekend after weekend, are probably worse than the best of MLS — and certainly worse than Boca, River Plate and much of the Brasileirão. Some of the Brasileirão, and certainly the top two, meanwhile, could compete with the top halves of the top flights in Germany, Italy, Spain and France. They have enough money, enough intelligence, enough homegrown talent.

There is still, though, a distance to the tippy-top.

“There is an elite in football that is superior,” Flamengo coach Filipe Luis, who played for Atlético Madrid and Chelsea, admitted Friday. “Brazilian clubs are competitive at the second level of European football. Flamengo will not devalue themselves against any opponent. But the squads of the elite are better. That’s a fact.”

What we underestimated, though, was how streetwise grit and pure desire and all the aforementioned variables could close the gap between those squads for 90 minutes. We underestimated how much a $100 million squad could trouble a $1 billion squad when it plays as an impassioned unit that’s “really emotional in some situations,” as Laimer said of Boca.

South American teams have bumped and bruised and disrupted the sometimes-coddled Europeans here in Miami and Los Angeles, in New Jersey and Philly. They haven’t proven that they are better, but that they’re good enough to be better on a given day.

“They play at a high level,” Kane said. “They [also] play maybe a different style, they make it more of a battle, they have different tactics that make it hostile and difficult.”