I did not realize how close the vote was between Germany and South Africa in the 2006 World Cup host bidding, with Germany winning the bid 12 to 11. What if South Africa ended up winning instead of Germany? Would we still see an all European semifinal? How does this change the future World Cup hosts and the continental rotation policy?
WI South Africa Hosts 2006 World Cup
- Thread starter wilcoxchar
- Start date
There are some teams that would have been different than in OTL:
Germany: Without being the host, the German team would have had to qualify. In OTL, Klinsmann/Löw had a lot of time to experiment with the squad and tactics, thereby testing a wide range of players. Later came a "wake-up call" in their 1-4 defeat to Italy shortly before the tournament. In a qualification round, there would have been other priorities (mainly, a solid qualification after the embarrassing exit at Euro 2004) and therefore possibly a more 'conservative' approach to the squad. This also means that another European team might not have made the tournament (possibly Switzerland).
England: The English team had real difficulties with the hot German summer back in 2006. Remember Becks throwing up during the game against Ecuador? The South African winter climate probably suited them better. And in 2006, the Terry-Gerrard-Lampard-Beckham-Rooney axis worked way better than four years later. With an easy preliminary group, they might make the semi-finals or even the final in South Africa '06.
Cote d'Ivoire were probably at their best phase in 2006, but had a tough group stage. Maybe they'd have had a better run on the home continent.
As for the European semi-final, I think that would still be the case. Portugal, Italy and France had very good teams. The other candidates would be Germany, England and the Netherlands. Brazil would still have Carlos Alberto Pareira as coach, who sort of had a laissez-faire "give Kaka, Ronaldinho and Adriano the ball and watch the sparks fly"-approach to tactics, which didn't work against teams such as Italy or France.
Germany: Without being the host, the German team would have had to qualify. In OTL, Klinsmann/Löw had a lot of time to experiment with the squad and tactics, thereby testing a wide range of players. Later came a "wake-up call" in their 1-4 defeat to Italy shortly before the tournament. In a qualification round, there would have been other priorities (mainly, a solid qualification after the embarrassing exit at Euro 2004) and therefore possibly a more 'conservative' approach to the squad. This also means that another European team might not have made the tournament (possibly Switzerland).
England: The English team had real difficulties with the hot German summer back in 2006. Remember Becks throwing up during the game against Ecuador? The South African winter climate probably suited them better. And in 2006, the Terry-Gerrard-Lampard-Beckham-Rooney axis worked way better than four years later. With an easy preliminary group, they might make the semi-finals or even the final in South Africa '06.
Cote d'Ivoire were probably at their best phase in 2006, but had a tough group stage. Maybe they'd have had a better run on the home continent.
As for the European semi-final, I think that would still be the case. Portugal, Italy and France had very good teams. The other candidates would be Germany, England and the Netherlands. Brazil would still have Carlos Alberto Pareira as coach, who sort of had a laissez-faire "give Kaka, Ronaldinho and Adriano the ball and watch the sparks fly"-approach to tactics, which didn't work against teams such as Italy or France.
I'm sorry, they didn't qualify OTL for 2006, but a switch of venue has them not only qualifying, but going right through the tournament?!
Not a chance!
Archibald
Banned
Would France make it to the final ? Would this memorable headbutt been butterflied away ? 
I think you would most likely have Ghana doing better than OTL of any of the African teams. They almost topped the group of Italy, the USA, and the Czech Republic, and a draw to Italy instead of a loss, or the US beating Italy who they drew 1-1, would have Ghana topping the group. With that, you'd have Italy-Brazil in the round of 16 while Ghana takes Italy's route of Australia and Ukraine. I could see Ghana beating both teams and making it to the semifinals assuming they get a similar trajectory.
TheMannis
Banned
The qualifications in Africa are really hard, in the final stage out of 5 teams in a group only one goes to the world cup. I remember that Togo qualified instead of them from their group.