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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. 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Manny Ramirez Jersey .C. -- Marcus Paige and his North Carolina teammates have endured so many wild swings -- big wins, surprising losses, NCAA drama -- that no one can blame their Hall of Fame coach for wondering whats next.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca. Kerry, I appreciate your earlier comments on Torontos handling of the Vanek goal, and Im sure youve seen the Howie Rose-Kris King interview by now. Im still left with some basic questions about what the actual NHL rules are at this point, and was hoping you could provide some insight. 1. Does the situation room still need clear, incontrovertible evidence to overturn calls made on the ice? Every NHL announcer seems to think so, but Kris King clearly indicates that while that logic held in many cases there was a specific subset of calls (including kicking motion) where the situation room could take the on-ice call as purely advisory and didnt have to find incontrovertible video evidence in order to overturn. Is Kings view backed up by formal statements/rule changes? Do NHL refs uniformly understand that Toronto needs clear evidence to overturn in some cases but not in others? 2. Kings comments seemed contradictory in that he said the rules regarding kicking were defined so that neither refs or the situation room needed to make any judgment as to the players intent (i.e goals scored by kicking should be disallowed even if they could be considered unintentional or inadvertent), but also raised the point that "foot dragging" could be defined as "kicking" in this context. First of all, Rule 38.4 which you quoted in your initial comment does not mention foot dragging, and the "pendulum" motion it prohibits would seem to explicitly exclude the possibility of disallowing goals based on foot dragging. Has there been an internal memo or formal rule change that all NHL refs would be aware of that expands Rule 38.4 to include foot dragging? Secondly, outside of extraordinarily blatant cases, how could anyone disallow a goal on foot dragging grounds without judging the players intentions? Hundreds of goals go off skates where there has been no "pendulum" type kicking motion. How could anyone distinguish good from bad goals without determining whether they thought the player was trying to intentionally redirect a puck, as opposed to simply position themselves near the goal mouth where lucky bounces sometimes occur? We all understand that no set of rules can ever be perfect. The issue here is that you and most fans that saw the Vanek video believed the rule to be applied in that situation was one thing, and King may have implied (but never clearly said), no - the rule to be applied in that situation is different. If the rules are 100 per cent clear to refs and everyone in the league, it would still be useful to communicate changes more clearly so that announcers and journalists arent confusing the fans. Of course, if situation room personnel think they can establish rule interpretations that the on-ice staff isnt in sync with, that would raise a different set of issues. Hoping you can clarify what the real situation is. Hubert Horan Hubert: I truly believe that each person who staffs the Situation Room on a nightly basis in Toronto is a man of integrity and cares deeply about the game. They do not take the huge responsibility handed to them lightly and they do strive to get every call right through videoo review to the best of their ability.dddddddddddd When a play, subject to review, is taken over by the Situation Room their judgment is independent of the referees and any decision rendered through video review is final. The only exception is when video review returns an "inconclusive verdict" at which time the call reverts back to the referee on the ice. In almost every case the referees initial call will then stand. The referees make the call from their vantage point in real time based on the rules as written and with the direction and expected standard of enforcement they are handed from their superiors. The refs recognize that their decision on the ice can be overturned for any reason, whether they agree or even like it! It would appear, at least from the perception of the personnel conducting the video review, that clear and incontrovertible evidence is present for them to overturn a referees call on the ice. That perception and ultimate decision is always subject to debate and scrutiny from the hockey community. While I cant ever recall Kris King agreeing with a penalty I assessed against him during his 14 season NHL career I know him to be a very good, honest and charitable person. As a former player that was most often cheered by adoring fans, Kris and his colleagues in the Situation Room can sometimes find their decisions challenged rather vehemently by various members of the hockey community. No differently than a referee experiences throughout his career, it goes with the territory! This might explain some of Kris apparent defensiveness during the interview with Howie Rose. What Kris didnt explain, but only alluded to, were instructions provided them by the general managers how to ascertain a "distinct kicking motion" beyond the definition provided in rule 38.4 (iv). If such instructions include a skate drag or worse yet, unintended contact with a players skate resulting from physical contact by an opponent, these new criteria should be clearly communicated to the rest of the hockey world. That I believe is the question that Howie Rose and the rest of us would like a clear answer to. I would be most curious to know if Isles GM Garth Snow and Habs GM Marc Bergevin (following Brendan Gallaghers disallowed goal) among others have signed off on the instructions Kris King alluded to. A referee often factors in "player intent" when imposing his judgment on infractions and calls. To suggest otherwise is illogical. At the present time a vast majority of the hockey community, including current and former officials, current and former players, broadcasters and fans cant logically understand decisions to disallow goals like the one that went into the net off the skate of Thomas Vanek. The answer to that question has to come clearly and definitively from Colin Campbell, current Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations who holds the keys to the Kingdom. Finally, the integrity and accuracy of the video review process would be greatly enhanced if the NHL were to employ former referees to provide their specialized expertise and INDEPENDENT judgment in these matters no differently than the other major professional sports leagues have recognized is necessary. 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