体坛英语新闻：Soccer scale tips to American teams at World Cup

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Teams from the Americas hold an upper hand midway through the Brazil World Cup with eight of 10 sides securing berths in the knockout stages, whereas 13 Europeans representatives only managed six.

From traditional powerhouses of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico to stunners Costa Rica and Colombia, down to Chile and the United States, American teams defended "home soil" advantage, mostly outplaying their European counterparts during the group stage.

Among them, Costa Rica is the convincing winner. Seen as an easy opponent in Group D and without any star player, the Central Americans would have completed a hat-trick of victories over three former world champions if they had not ended in a stalemate with England.

In the end, Costa Rica, whose only other appearance in the knockout phase dates back to its World Cup debut in 1990, collected seven points and now is preparing for the next round.

Colombia from South America also notched the top place in Group C with three consecutive wins without injured Radamel Falcao and Uruguay pushed out Italy with a 1-0 win in a do-or-die game.

In contrast, only half of European teams made it through to the last 16, with defending champion Spain and England out of contention after just two games and Italy joining them earlier than expected.

No wonder that the World Cup has been compared to Copa Amercia.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff praised the Latin American teams, saying "the amount of Latin American teams with good chances in the Cup, good teams, is huge. It is beautiful to see Latin America so strong."

It's not an easy task for American teams to emerge victoriously. Although none of the previous seven World Cups in the Americas was won by teams outside the continent, European teams hold the advantage in recent years as at least 10 teams advanced to the elimination stage in five World Cups since 1986.

"We are in Brazil, so the South American teams certainly acclimatize better, and maybe the fact that they are playing so close to home and have so many supporters with them gives them added strength and energy," said France coach Didier Deschamps.

But others believe Latin America's success roots in its creativity and youth training system.

Famous Chinese soccer commentator Yan Qiang took Costa Rica as an example. "In Costa Rica, with a population of 4.6 million, children between 7 and 12 take free soccer training and some schools even request ball-passing 1,000 times a day."

On the elimination stage that begins on Saturday, Argentina will take on Switzerland as Mexico faces the Netherlands and Costa Rica plays against Greece.

In two all-Latin American games, Brazil confronts Chile and Colombia meet Uruguay.