The Iranian fairytale 3. Saudi, Arabia, Corea Rep, and Japan 4. As you can see from the diagrams and figures African teams had a much better points per game average than the Asians. Here Saudi Arabia got the first Asian win since 1966 and added a second one against Belgium. This made it the first World Cup in which Asians were more successful than Africans.
Many experts speak of the 'small' football nations have closed the gap.
It is true that knowledge about the basics of the game has improved everywhere in the world, not at last because television has conquered the space of visual experiences and is delivering almost daily samples to learn from. Especially African players have played in Europe and been able to pass on their knowledge. Because of the shortage of European based professionals, Asia had to go a different way. But also football in the 'old' football world has further improved. The Iranian fairytale 3.