What we learned in football in 2014

FIFA will never cease to shock, disappoint 

Gianluca Nesci: Scandal. Corruption. Indifference towards the welfare of human beings. A hilarious disregard for their own image. We've known these things about FIFA for quite some time now. None of it was a surprise, exactly.

But the sport's governing body really cranked the engine and outdid itself in 2014. 

The exploitation of migrant workers in Qatar. The disastrous handling of the Garcia Report. Sepp Blatter mocking, and then being forced to apologize, to Cristiano Ronaldo. It never ends, and it probably never will.

Oh yeah, and that abomination of a film - no, not The Interview - was released in 2014 as well. Funny, really, that United Passions was the only endeavour involving FIFA that lost money this year.

The resurgence of the 3-man backline

Carlo Campo: Defenders were sacrificed in 2014 as three-man backlines became one of the year’s most popular tactical trends.

Formations with three centre-backs complimented by two wing-backs had already become a familiar site in South America before the year began, as well as at clubs like Juventus.

However, as pointed out by the Guardian’s Jonathan Wilson in the first part of his excellent tactical review of the year, three-man backlines became increasingly common at the international level and were visible among numerous sides at the World Cup.

It was a common site among teams that experienced success at the competition, most notably Costa Rica, who exceeded expectations with their phenomenal defending and reached the quarterfinals where they fell to another team featuring a three-man backlines in the Netherlands.

Chile and Mexico, who were both eliminated in the round of 16, also deployed three centre-backs at the World Cup, but no team benefitted quite like the Oranje from having an extra body in their midfield. Of course, the Netherlands’ manager at the tournament, Louis van Gaal, has since experimented with the tactic since joining Manchester United. And based off the club’s performance versus Newcastle on Boxing Day, United appear poised to thrive should they continue adapting to a system with three centre-backs.

We can only hope that the tactic becomes more popular in 2015 as it tends to make for more attacking and dramatic football.

The numbers game continues to grow

Gianluca Nesci: Bob Dylan probably wasn't talking about football, but his message is certainly applicable to the Beautiful Game.

Advanced stats is changing the way we look at the sport, the way we think about it and the way we analyze it. The world of analytics has long been prevalent in football, but never has it been so widespread.

It now lives in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and Grantland, adding to the many others that proponents of advanced stats have frequented for years.

Terms like Total Shot Ratio (TSR) Expected Goals (ExpG) and others are making their way into mainstream discussions. Player stats are being measured in different ways, with traditional goals and assists looked at lesser as a total, and more in the appropriate 'per 90' metric.

This probably looks familiar:

As does this:

It's not going to happen overnight, and it's not all the way there yet, but the times, they are a changin'.

South American club football is struggling

Carlo Campo: At the club level, it’s been a long time since such a disparity was visible between the quality of the game in Europe and South America.

Measuring South America’s top clubs against the best of Europe is always tough given the lack of fixtures between the two. But the Club World Cup, where Real Madrid cruised to their first-ever title against Argentina’s San Lorenzo in the final, served as a stark reminder of Europe’s superiority.

“As has been the case so often in recent years, the Club World Cup provided concrete evidence: The Europeans turn up and play, even though the South Americans dreamed about and prepared for the clash for months,” wrote South American football writer Tim Vickery in a recent article for ESPN FC.

As Vickery also points out, the reason for the disparity lies largely in globalization. That shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s aware of European football’s financial dominance, and, of course, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Europe obviously attracts South America’s top players, as has been the case for a while now, including arguably three of planet’s top five in Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, and Neymar.

However, in the past, South American sides demonstrated more of an ability to compete against their European counterparts simply based off the talent that the continent produces naturally. But this is no longer the case. The game in Europe has been taken to new heights courtesy of clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and as it stands, South American clubs can only look across the Atlantic Ocean with hopes of someday reaching that level.

Sometimes, the slipper does fit

Gianluca Nesci: Cinderella herself would have enjoyed this year in football.

Atletico Madrid did the unthinkable in La Liga, knocking both Barcelona and Real Madrid off their lofty perch at the top of Spanish football despite running on a quarter of the wage bill. It was incredible.

Liverpool, for all their warts as a team, came agonizingly close to the Premier League title after three consecutive seasons where they finished no better than sixth. It was captivating.

Given no chance to escape from a group with three former World Cup winners, Costa Rica not only defeated Italy and Uruguay en route to top spot in Group D, they came within a penalty shootout of reaching the semifinal. It was mesmerizing.

Every so often, magic still happens in this sport.

Then of course, sometimes Sergio Ramos scores in the 90th minute of the Champions League final, and Steven Gerrard slips. Real Madrid ends Atletico's hope of a historic double, and Liverpool's unlikely run to the title comes up just short.

At least we get the best of both worlds.