The Great Melting Pots

The United States is often referred to as the "great melting pot" for its ability to assimilate races, cultures and religions with seeming ease.  Although it was clearly ahead of the rest of the world, it is no longer unique in this regard.  One only need to look at the rosters of the nations competing in the 2014 World Cup to see evidence of this population heterogeneity that is a natural result of globalization.  There are many far more important social, political and economic implications of the trend, but one that I have noticed -- in particular with this edition of the World Cup -- is the lack of diversity in the style of soccer on display.  To my eyes at least, the distinction between the style of play between, for example, an African national team and a European national team are far less obvious than they were in previous tournaments.  For that matter, even Brazil's distinctive style is less apparent than in any World Cup tournament that I can recall, yes even 1974 and 1994.  Much of this "heterogeneous soccer style" , it can be reasonably argued, is the result of "tactical sophistication".  With almost half of the 32 national teams sporting "foreign coaches", I suppose it should come as little surprise that some national teams' "quirks" have been identified and eliminated.  Of course, I am not questioning the competitiveness nor the excitement of the tournament so far.  There have been few, if any, blowouts.  I am merely observing that, perhaps as a natural result of the game's unparalleled globalization, we have sacrificed some of the idiosyncrasies that made the World Cup unique.