To this day, in his mind, his side were the best team. "We knew we were much better than them, we were not afraid at all." Johan Cruyff shakes his head when thinking back to the day his Dutch side lost in the 1974 World Cup final to hosts West Germany. The shake, however, is not full of bitterness, bewilderness or even disappointment. Cruyff didnt need a trophy to tell him his team was the best. After all, for the next 40 years, all he and the rest of us have heard is how good that team was. It speaks volumes about Cruyff, and indeed the Dutch philosophy, that they were happy to be the Peoples Champions, rather than the World Champions. Greatness, instead, is used to describe the team that came from behind to beat them that day, a team featuring stars like Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller and Paul Breitner. Sixteen years later, in Rome, West Germany became World Champions once again. Great players like Lothar Matthaus, Andreas Brehme and Jurgen Klinsmann helped to dispose of an extremely average Argentina team. It was only one game of football. The same length of a match that can happen at your local park. Yet, despite it being an awful match, it accomplished something so important. It was able to separate greatness and mediocrity, ensuring the chronicles of football history were told the way they should. Since then five other teams would go on to win the World Cup in their own different ways. Some were better than others, but all of them deserved to win it and were better than their opponents. In Brazil we are now down to the final four. It has been a great World Cup, full of great moments, many of them coming from great players. However, where greatness has yet to be sprinkled is upon any of the teams. Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Netherlands is a wonderful final group to have in the semi-finals. Indeed, it is the first time ever that the two South American powerhouses have been at this stage in the same World Cup. All four are true giants in the game, without question, but so far the 2014 versions have been far from great. They all head into the final two laps of this World Cup knowing one of them will become the champions when they cross the line for the final time next Sunday inside the famous Maracana. All four have shown glimpses of individual greatness. Netherlands, who had to come from behind against Spain, Australia and Mexico, are inexperienced in defence and have significant weaknesses in midfield but they have lethal, clinical, great finishers who have helped them get this far although Robin Van Persie has gotten progressively worse as the tournament has gone on. Argentina saved their best performance for their latest victory, a 1-0 quarter-final defeat of Belgium. However, it was far from an outstanding performance. Coach Alejandro Sabella will be glad some players stepped up in key areas that badly needed to be improved but they remain a team that is very vulnerable in defence and the collective balance of the side is still nowhere near complete. Lionel Messi has been great at this World Cup, scoring or assisting on five of their eight goals so far, but Argentina have benefitted from a very kind draw and, other than at Messi, it would be wrong to place any kind of greatness on anyone else at the moment. In fact, it has been a clinic in countering the argument that Messi himself must carry Argentina to glory, showing glaring examples of how average the team really is. The same can be said for Brazil, whose two truly great players will not feature for them in the semi-finals. Thiago Silva (suspension) and Neymar (back injury) will be a huge loss for the hosts against Germany. However, what this allows us all to do is to sit back and see if greatness can be found by others. It will be up to the other eleven players for Brazil to see if they can reach the final in front of an expectant home crowd. The Brazilian public often demands to see winners, while being entertained at the same time, and so far the team has only managed to, barely, win. With two games to go to win an historic World Cup on home soil it appears, based on the quarter-final crowd, that the winning ugly method is fine as long as they keep jumping the hurdles towards greatness. However, more often than not, winning ugly and losing usually meet at the same point. Eventually. Luiz Felipe Scolaris side have not been anywhere close to great at this World Cup but have two games left to save their reputation and cast aside any labels that have been thrown at them so far. Standing in their way is a Germany team who has also showed some significant flaws getting to the last four. Their captain Philipp Lahm hasnt been at his best, in either position he has been played at, while Mesut Ozil and Mario Gotze have been dubbed the invisible duo by the German press while coach Joachin Low remains undecided on who plays up front. However, their latest victory, a narrow 1-0 win over France in the quarter-finals, did give us a glimpse into what could be a victorious German team going forward. The balance of the midfield is better with the outstanding Sami Khedira in it, Bastian Schweinsteiger is starting to look more and more fit and influential, while Mats Hummels returned from the flu and ensured the back four were excellent for the first time. Make no mistake, this is not a great team. Yet. However, of the final four, they look the closest to such a label at the moment. It is a team that relies heavily on the influence of its Bayern Munich players, winners who have succeeded at the highest level of the game. It is a team that has learned how to lose at the international level and modeled themselves on past victors, Spain. Spain are on their holidays now but they have played an enormous part of what is happening in Brazil. Four years ago, at this stage, they were preparing for a game against the aforementioned Germans, after finally getting over the hump of the World Cup quarter-finals, a hurdle that had knocked them out so many times before. Their run to the trophy in South Africa showed us all what greatness was. This time we have had to wait much longer for it to show up. With one week left to go at this World Cup we still need to be patient. Four teams in a knock-out stage tournament where only one will reign supreme. Thankfully, we know from past years that at least the World Cup will hand us a deserved winner. There is still time for a Peoples Champion to be crowned but there is no time for more than one team to become great. It has taken some time but it is coming. Air Max Saldi Outlet . - The Jacksonville Jaguars are leaning more toward playing injured quarterback Blake Bortles against Tennessee on Thursday night. Scarpe Kd Outlet . -- Chicago manager Darold Butler has a message for the Windy City. http://www.airmaxshoponlineitalia.it/sco...max-outlet.html. The team announced that it exercised the options on 15 players including goalkeepers Evan Bush, Maxime Crepeau and Troy Perkins, defenders Matteo Ferrari, Karl W. Air Max Plus Ingrosso .C. - Steve Clifford isnt exactly singing his teams praises after the Bobcats won for the sixth time in seven games. Airmax Italia Internet . "Im proud of him," Jones said in an interview from Sacramento, site of the UFCs weekend televised card. "I think hes listening to his body and hes doing what makes him happy and thats what life is about ultimately.DALLAS - Stan Van Gundy had an explanation for his Detroit Pistons dramatic turnaround:Practice.Specifically, three days of practice from Dec. 22-24. Since then, a team that was 5-23 has become the NBAs hottest team, with a seven-game winning streak.On Wednesday night, Detroit never trailed in beating the Dallas Mavericks 108-95. They also came in with a six-game winning streak.From then on, its just been different, Van Gundy said. Theyve worked harder. Theyve been more attentive. A lot more together. We dont have guys that are getting concerned about whos in the game, or their playing time, or their shots.Theyve had four different high scorers in their seven wins. On Wednesday, it was Greg Monroe, who had 18 rebounds in addition to 27 points for his 13th double-double this season.But D.J. Augustin came off the bench to have an even greater impact, scoring 17 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. He played only 22 minutes.We dont have a one-man team, Augustin said. We have different guys that can contribute every night. Its fun when were playing together like this and were winning.Mavericks forward Chandler Parsons said the Pistons are a different team from the one Dallas beat in Detroit last month.Night and day, Parsons said. Its all confidence. They obviously always had the talent, same coach, same players, same system, but theyre playing free and theyre playing confident right now.The Mavericks pulled within 81-77 with 8:10 to play, but after drawing a technical foul, Augustin made two 3-point shots to increase the lead to 10 points.Brandon Jennings added 14 points, and Jodie Meeks had 11 for Detroit. Andre Drummond had a game-high 19 rebounds for Detroit, which outrebounded the Mavericks 60-43.Dallas Dirk Nowitzki said,We have to all get in there and help Tyson (Chandler) out, Dallas Dirk Nowitzki said. Tysons been a stud on the boards, all year long, both ends of the floor.Chandler had 15 of the Mavericks 443 rebounds.ddddddddddddWe turned it over quite a bit and our shot-making wasnt great, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. When you cant mitigate a rebounding deficit with those two things in your favour, then its going to be tough.Nowitzki scored 19 points, while Monta Ellis had 16, Parsons 15 and Devin Harris 14.I give Detroit a lot of credit, Carlisle said. We just werent good enough tonight. I just know that Detroit competed at a very high level, and we didnt match it.TIP-INSPistons: They were coming off a 105-104 victory Tuesday at San Antonio after trailing by 18 points in the second quarter. ... Detroits most recent seven-game winning streak had come between Dec. 23, 2008, and Jan. 4, 2009. Five of the games in the current streak have been on the road.Mavericks: They won the only other game between the teams this season, 117-106 at Detroit on Dec. 17. That was their sixth straight win over the Pistons. ... Dallas had won the previous 11 games against Eastern Conference opponents. ... The Mavericks had made 45 per cent (43 for 95) of their 3-point attempts in the previous four games, but made just 27 per cent (6 for 22) against Detroit. ... Dallas has been outrebounded in six of the last seven games.RENEWING THE RECORDThe Pistons have a five-game road winning streak for the first time since 2007-08. They hadnt won in San Antonio and Dallas in the same season since 1996-97.Each team was playing its third game in four nights.KEEPING UP WITH THE SMITHSOn Dec. 22, the Pistons waived Josh Smith, but Van Gundy indicated that the move wasnt connected with the hot streak.I had no problems with Josh at all, Van Gundy said. Josh worked hard. Joshs a 10-year vet. I wanted to give other people opportunities, and it was going to cut his time and take the ball out of his hands. I didnt really think it was fair (to him).UP NEXTPistons: Home vs. Atlanta on Friday.Mavericks: At Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. ' ' '