This has been the case since the invention of the World Cup, in 1930:

Someone from Europe or South America is going to win … and their finals opponent also will hail from Europe or South America.

I became attuned to this quadrennial inevitability (to date) while working in the Persian Gulf for more than six years and watching Asia sides trying to catch up to the Euros and the South Americans.

And I wonder if — or let’s be kind and say “when” — someone from Asia, Africa or North America will reach a World Cup final.

Or even win it.

Let’s review the Russia 2018 field, now that the group stages are concluded.

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Got to give it to Diego Maradona.

The Argentinian God-handed hero/star/drama queen/double-bird-flipping raving lunatic may be the only man alive whose activities in and around the 2018 World Cup could nearly overshadow Germany being knocked out of the tournament in the group stage today.

Nearly.

We all know what happened to Germany — that hot mess of a dog’s breakfast they threw up in the match versus South Korea, which ended 2-0 to the Koreans and ended 70 years of soccer pundits saying “Germany always makes the quarterfinals.”

But we can never be sure what happened to El Diego overnight, and that led to him wrenching more than a little attention away from Die Mannschaft by letting everyone know, via social media, that he was alive and well … or at least alive, anyway … following his riveting one-man-show in a private suite during Argentina’s win-or-go-home victory over Nigeria.

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Iran is out of Russia 2018, and I have heaved a sigh of relief.

Just did it again. A big sigh of relief.

It has nothing to do with international politics.

It has everything to do with the guys representing Iran on the football fields of Russia and all about the ugliest soccer played by any national team ranked in the Fifa global top 50.

And not having to look at that soccer sewage again before 2022.

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Germany’s do-or-die, last-kick-wonder-goal, 2-1 victory over Sweden tonight was perhaps the best match, so far, in the 2018 World Cup.

It also may be the least popular result, so far, among global soccer fans.

Two concepts that call for further reflection.

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The great Gary Larson, creator of the incisive and usually funny-as-hell one-panel cartoon known as the Far Side, has often been on my mind, as the 2018 World Cup enters its second week.

One cartoon, in particular.

It shows several hugely obese people, relatives, I think we are meant to understand, sitting on a porch — with a fried-chicken stand very near to their house.

And the caption has the father saying something like:

“Sometimes I wonder if having the fried-chicken place next door is a good thing.”

Which is me and the World Cup.

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And it’s only Tuesday!

It has been a rocky few days for Landon Donovan, maybe the greatest player in American soccer history and, at the moment, maybe the most controversial.

On Saturday, came the  Twitter ad in which Landon is holding a green scarf with lettering that reads: “My other team is Mexico” … and a message that includes: “USA fans, our team may not be in Russia but our neighbors to the south are. So join me and their proud #sponsor @WellsFargo … to cheer on our other team. … Vamos Mexico!”

That cozying up to El Tri did not go over well with some fans and former U.S. players. Taylor Twellman, once a USMNT teammate of Landon’s, said he would rather “cut off my toe than root for [Mexico]”. Another former teammate, Carlos Bocanegra, had a simple response. “Really?”

Then came an uncomfortable escalation.

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Just saw a memorable match in the 2018 Russia World Cup.

It may go largely unnoticed, given that earlier in the day Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick and Argentina was held to a draw by tiny (but doughty) Iceland, population 350,000 … and even earlier France fought off the gritty Aussies in a 2-1 match.

My Game of the Day was the third: Peru versus Denmark.

Soccer is a contact sport, of course, but this one turned into a street fight … maybe the roughest game I have seen in a World Cup.

It was Peru that brought the aggression. It was Denmark that staggered from the onslaught, and the game was fascinating from start to semi-surprising finish.

Some things to know about Peru v Denmark:

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This is as good as it gets, in world sports.

More diverse than an Olympics. Far wider global interest than in cricket or rugby or basketball.

The first two rounds of the Fifa World Cup soccer group stage.

Eleven consecutive days, this time around, at the 2018 Russia World Cup, of 32 teams still with a chance to advance to the knockout round.

Yes, even Saudi Arabia, which was routed 5-0 by the hosts in the opening match of the competition tonight. (The score is not quite fair; most of the Saudi players were fasting, on the final day of Ramadan, and as has happened before when the Saudis play during the fast, they faded in the final 20 minutes. But, no, they did not show much in the first 70 minutes, either.)

So. No one can be mathematically eliminated until after the second batch of games have been played. On the 11th day of the tournament. Everyone can still dream, till then.

Meantime, we get to watch a broad selection of the world’s teams, from Japan to Mexico, from Argentina to Iran and Spain, and it is quite fun. To me, the greatest stretch of time on the sports calendar.

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I find it nearly impossible to be a neutral observer in any competition. Give me five minutes in a game involving teams I don’t know … and I will have a favorite. It could be about geography or playing style or history, but I will have made a choice.

A girlfriend from a long, long time ago noticed this, as it pertained to my approach to life. Up or down, left or right, right or wrong, home team or visitors. She said I practiced dualism and didn’t see the gray between the black and white. Hmm.

Which leads to today’s topic: With the 2018 World Cup beginning tomorrow, let’s rank the five teams I would like to do well — from the perspective of “always rooting for them to win unless they play someone else on my list”. In which case the higher-ranked team in my personal rankings will be my favorite.

(And no U.S. to get the inevitable No. 1 spot in this item.)

Following this?

I suppose this is a list, and I never do enough of those. People love lists. Even those who are not dualists. Read on.

We will do this counting down from my fifth-favorite team.

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The tournament begins June 14 in Moscow, when host Russia faces Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the 2018 World Cup.

So it is getting late to be talking about the U.S. failure to compete in the greatest competition in global sports.

But I am going to do just that, one last time. (Well, maybe one last time.)

Two threads here:

1. How close the Yanks came to qualifying.

2. Why they did not.

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