Today’s Philosophers World Cup preview features Group F, potentially one of the more open groups in the tournament, including the teams of Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iran, and Argentina. Refer to the introduction to understand what this is all about.
Argentina was one of the most impressive teams during the qualification stage, winning the COMNEBOL group. Bosnia & Herzegovina shocked the world by winning their UEFA group, a group which included the far more established Greece. Iran also won its group, but that was very much an expected outcome. Nigeria qualified by virtue of defeating a talented by slumping Ethiopian side during their Africa group playoff.
Iran is favored to win the group on paper, but could struggle against Argentina since Spanish is by far the most Eurocentric corpus. Nevertheless, Iran’s strong team in built on the foundation of centuries of Persian hegemony in Western Asia. As such, Iran has one of the oldest squads in the tournament leading some media members to question Iran’s ability to stay competitive late in matches. Avicenna dismissed these criticisms, noting that old age and physical fitness are not mutually exclusive. Argentina’s players are less well-known than their Persian counterparts, but Argentina has the potential to go undefeated in group play if all goes to plan. Argentine goalkeeper José María Rosa boldly announced to the press, “Although the general survey books silence Argentinian thinkers, we perform well in our mother tongue and have no fear of the Persians.”
However, unlike in most groups, the two sides not widely expected to advance are more than capable of stunning the favorites. Nigeria is among the strongest West African teams and fancies its chances to upset Argentina and score points against Bosnia & Herzegovina in the English corpus. Nigeria plays five defenders and hopes to setup crosses by aggressively advancing their right and left backs to create opportunities for striker Olufemi Taiwo. Meanwhile, Bosnia & Herzegovina are hoping for a match in the German corpus to upset Argentina, which could be the difference for the defensive-minded Bosnians. “All we need is one big upset and to take care of business against Nigeria and perhaps we can advance,” Nijaz Duraković told enthralled members of the Bosnian press. It will be difficult, but not impossible.
Prediction:
Iran
Argentina
Nigeria
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Rosters
Argentina
Corpus: Spanish
Team:
Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810)
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811) [Political]
José Ingenieros (1877)
Carlos Ibarguren (1877) [History]
Francisco Romero (1891)
Julio Meinvielle (1905) [Theology]
José María Rosa (1906) [History]
Mario Bunge (1919)
Arturo Andrés Roig (1922)
Juan José Sebreli (1930)
Ernesto Laclau (1935)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Corpus: German
Team:
Vladimir Corovic (1885) [History]
Dominik Mandic (1889) [History]
Enver Redzic (1915) [History]
Smail Balic (1920) [History]
Adil Zulfikarpasic (1921) [Political]
Muhamed Filipovic (1929)
Mustafa Imamovic (1941) [History]
Nijaz Durakovic (1949) [Political]
Mustafa Ceric (1952) [Theology]
Iran
Corpus: English
Team:
Mazdak (c. 475)
Ibn al-Rawandi (827)
Al-Tabari (839) [History]
Al-Farabi (872)
Avicenna (980)
Al-Ghazali (1058) [Theology]
Fakhruddin Razi (1149)
Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201)
Mulla Sadra (1572) [Theology]
Hossein Nasr (1933)
Khosrow Bagheri (1957)
Nigeria
Corpus: English
Team:
Usman dan Fodio (1754) [Theology]
Nana Asma’u (c. 1793) [Theology]
Kenneth Dike (1917) [History]
Saburi Biobaku (1918) [History]
J. F. Ade Ajayi (1929) [History]
E.J. Alagoa (1933) [History]
Adiele Afigbo (1937) [History]
Toyin Falola (1953) [History]
Olufemi Taiwo (c. 1955)
Segun Gbadegesin (c. 1955)
Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze (1963)
Notes:
“Corpus” refers to the preferred Ngrams language corpus that is used in matchups, not the official or majority language spoken in that country.
Fields that appear in brackets refer to theorists who are not thought of as philosophers in the stricter sense. This is important per roster rule limits.
Imaginary Skyscapes 