World Cup 2018: We have no outstanding team but that's not unusual nor is it a bad thing

Few teams have ever dominated a World Cup and left a lasting legacy. It might even be better that this tournament remains tightly-contested

The start of this World Cup has thrown up several themes - the number of penalties awarded, goals scored from set-pieces and 1-0 scorelines are all unusually high - but by far the most common observation is that no team so far has played like world champions in waiting. There is no ‘outstanding’ side.

Spain were maybe the most impressive in the opening round of group fixtures yet went behind and ultimately could not beat Portugal. In their second outing, Fernando Hierro’s side laboured to victory over an organised but limited Iran. Brazil - the pre-tournament favourites - initially dominated their opening game in Rostov but Switzerland, their opponents, adapted well to claim a draw.

Germany, the holders, look vulnerable in midfield and were embarrassed by Mexico. France, Belgium and England all won but without a real sense of authority. Every one of the leading candidates can look back on their start to this tournament and find at least one area which requires improvement. Argentina, however, can almost certainly be written off.

There were fair questions to ask of the three main favourites before the opening games, regardless. Germany’s core players - the veterans of 2010 and 2014 - already looked past their peak. Signs of Brazil’s fragile mentality and Neymar complex persist, despite the general improvement under Tite. Spain, impressive in qualifying, are still not the force of old. They sacked their manager a day before the tournament began too, by the way.

All this has already led to predictions that this World Cup will be won by the team that is the ‘least bad’ rather than one that is exceptional, and those predictions will probably prove to be correct. Yet to have field of flawed contenders and ultimately a flawed winner at a World Cup is not particularly unusual. If anything, it is quite the norm.

Eight years ago, Vicente del Bosque’s Spain certified their greatness by winning the country’s first World Cup and - alongside Pep Guardiola’s contemporaneous Barcelona - influenced football the world over. It was perhaps the first time in 10 tournaments and 40 years - since the technicolour awakening of Brazil in 1970 - that an outstanding team had earned the tag of world champions.

The gap would have been much smaller had the Netherlands’ ‘total football’ earned the rewards it deserved in 1974 but Johan Cruyff only finished as a beaten finalist, then did so again four years later. From thereon until Spain’s triumph, no international side innovated or influenced the modern game in the same way. No truly outstanding team won the World Cup.

Even if we water down our definition of ‘outstanding’ and use it relatively - to describe very good teams, winners and non-winners, who stood head and shoulders above their rivals at a single World Cup finals - then the field does not widen by much.

The Brazil of 1982 retain cult status to this day but fell short. The Argentina of 1986 were the best team at that tournament but reliant on one man. France in 1998 are remembered fondly yet took their time to find fluidity, requiring extra time to beat Paraguay in the second round and penalties to overcome Italy in the quarters. Italy in 2006 - defensively superb - deserve a mention, but it was never clear that their solidity would be enough to carry them the whole way and they were not considered favourites until the final.

Our most recent winners, Germany, were in hindsight quite clearly the best team at the 2014 World Cup. Yet pre-tournament dramas, a group-stage draw against Ghana and a close-run second round tie with Algeria all caused dampened expectations. It may seem ridiculous four years on, but they began the Mineirazo as slight under-dogs.

It is ultimately quite rare for a team to mark itself out as clearly superior to the rest of the field at a World Cup finals, especially this early in the tournament. And in fact, it might be preferable that one does not break clear of the pack in Russia.

The group stage draw was relatively kind to this year's contenders, keeping most of them apart, offering us no real ‘Group of Death’. Despite some opening round struggles, all but Argentina can expect to qualify and if they do, we may have an evenly-contested knockout stage rich in quality - potentially the best in recent World Cup memory.

An outstanding tournament or an outstanding team? If most of us were offered such a choice, we would surely give only one answer.