Postulations, postulations

Once again, the commentator's curse has struck. Everyone was trying to fathom why all of South America's teams qualified from their groups and how they made up half of the quarter-final line-up. Was it the ball? Was it that they play at higher altitude more often than teams from other continents? Was it that they have a longer qualifying season bonding them more closely together as a national unit? Conversely, it was the lowest number (proportionately given the increasing size of World Cup tournaments) of Europeans qualifying from their groups in ages. Was Europe in crisis?
Well, what a difference a weekend makes. Now, three out of four of the semi-finalists are European, bearing a close resemblance to the four from that continent that it was composed of four years ago and Uruguay are only in it by the width of a crossbar. Does anyone reporting from the World Cup know what they are talking about or does the constant media cycle mean any dubious story or analysis has to be dredged up and dusted down just so the hacks can justify their jobs. Probably a bit of both really.