Promising national teams which have failed to perform at the big stage (Part I)

With the qualifications for the 2014 World Cup started, here is a look at a few teams who have shown promise but failed to really give a good show at major events.

Belgium: A team which has promised much but has failed to perform at the big stage, Belgium is full of players of great caliber. Namely Eden Hazard, known for his creativity, vision and speed is one of the rising stars in the EPL. Vincent Kompany and Thomas Vermaelen, both are world-class defenders playing in the Premier League and both are captains of their EPL teams. Marouane Fellaini, who has taken the Premier League by storm by scoring twice in the opening two games, is one key midfielder in the Belgian side which also consists of Moussa Dembele, Alex Witsel and Kevin De Bruyne. Though the strike force is a bit inexperienced, the trio of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas and Christian Benteke has great potential and all the three are great in the air and are pretty fast. Amazingly enough the ‘Rode Duivels’ have not qualified for the World Cup since 2002 and even more appalling is the fact that the Belgians haven’t qualified even for the Euros since 2000, where they qualified a co-hosts along with The Netherlands, where they finished a disappointing 12^th. The only commendable performance in recent times was a fourth place finish at the 2008 Olympics. Wishing the Belgians luck for their 2014 qualifying campaign, I hope they realize it’s about time to show their true colors.

Scotland: A squad filled with players from less supported (with due respect) teams from the Premier League, with a few exceptions, has failed to perform at the big stage, with their most ‘recent’ major tournament being the 1998 World Cup held in France where they exited in the first round. Darren Fletcher, Gary Caldwell, Alan Hutton, Phil Bardsley, James Morrison, Charlie Adam, Barry Bannan, Jamie Mackie and Shaun Maloney are a few well known Scottish players with all of them playing in the EPL. Scotland’s World Cup qualifying campaign got off to a poor start when they were held to a goalless draw by Serbia at Hampden Park. Time to wake up Scotland!

Northern Ireland: Many mistake Northern Ireland and Ireland as the same country and believe they also have the same football team. But no, Northern Ireland and just ‘Ireland’ is different with the major difference being that um … they have different football teams. Well, that’s how I see it. Okay now let’s get to the point. Northern Ireland haven’t played in the World Cup since 1990 and the UEFA European Championship (Euro) since 1964. Simple as that … the most laudable fact of this team is that George Best wore the green colors of Northern Ireland and is considered her best player. A few well known players are Johnny Evans, Gareth McAuley, Chris Brunt and David Healy (who is also Northern Ireland’s top scorer and he plays for Bury). This team is going through turbulent times, after losing their opening Word Cup qualification match against Russia, and it will take some time for this team to improve and start playing at the top level again.

With three teams done, wait until next time to find out more teams who have promised, but never really performed.