Six South American nations entered the 2014 World Cup, including host nation Brazil, and three of them have something compelling in common. Argentina, alongside Brazil and Uruguay, may, when it comes down to the bare bones of their progress in the tournament, be reliant upon two factors. Good goalkeeping and a superstar striker. Is it enough to carry one of them all the way to the title?

Argentina of course have Lionel Messi up front and Sergio Romero in between the sticks. Brazil have Neymar to rely upon for goals, while they have the experienced Julio Cesar to call upon for goalkeeping duties. As for Uruguay, they have Fernando Muslera, a solid shot stopper, while up front they have, or did have, the brilliance of Luis Suarez. But with Suarez taking a literal bite out of the opposition in the Celeste’s final group match against Italy, their chances of getting further in the tournament will be majorly hampered.

The example of Luis Suarez and Uruguay is a great one to look at. Including the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and through to the conclusion of the group stage of the 2014 World Cup, Suarez had missed two matches in the tournament. One of them was against Holland in the 2010 semi finals, the other was against Costa Rica in the group stage this year. What happened in both? Uruguay lost. Uruguay’s last two defeats at a World Cup have coincided with the absence of Suarez, their best striker.

So it does point to perhaps a fragile line that Brazil and Argentina are also walking, in being heavily reliant upon a superstar to fire them towards success, instead of being a team. Anything can happen in football of course, so what if Brazil were to lose Neymar, what if Argentina were to lose Messi to injury? Where would their chances of winning the World Cup lie? Any potential opponent down the line for Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil would be much happier facing them without their star attraction. The big guns would be the for the taking because they are so heavily reliant upon them.

If you picture Neymar and Messi out of action, then it levels the playing field of potential World Cup winners immensely. There’s less of a division from Brazil and Argentina to the chasing pack. Messi carried Argentina through their group stage with some brilliant goals, and even though the Albiceleste have fantastic alternative options up front in Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero, neither have put in a solid performance yet worthy of the world stage. Neymar likewise carried Brazil, who as a whole were made to look average in a 0-0 group stage draw with Mexico.

Neymar has scored eight goals in six appearances for Brazil this year (35 goals in 52 internationals in his career), while Lionel Messi has scored five in six appearances in 2014, and 42 in 89 internationals. During the Group Stage of the 2014 World Cup, Messi scored four of Argentina’s six goals, while Neymar also contributed four goals of seven scored by Brazil in the group stage. Luis Suarez scored two in just two matches for Uruguay.

That is what superstar power can bring to the table, but what is there if they aren’t available to play? Is putting the eggs all in one basket, in building a team around one player, good enough? Of course, if you are blessed with a superstar then you use him as much as you can. But sometimes that isn’t even enough, as Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t carry an average Portugal side through to the knockout stages.

If you look in contrast at Colombia, they lost their star striker in Radamel Falcao before the tournament, so are coping without him, but they haven’t missed a beat. Why? Because they were never solely reliant upon him. They have a much stronger balance running throughout the team, to compensate not having a world class striker in their ranks. Germany play without a recognised number nine and have masterfully been able to utilise attacking midfielders like Mario Gotze and Thomas Muller.

So it can be done, but on the evidence of the group stage at the 2014 World Cup, neither Brazil nor Argentina have a Plan B up their sleeves. If Neymar nor Lionel Messi are scoring for their respective nations, then both look as if they could get picked off. The saving grace for Argentina in such a situation is they have a high quality keeper (one of the best in the tournament) in Monaco’s Romero to keep them in games, plus back up strikers. Brazil however, look far more fragile between the sticks and if Neymar’s not there to pick up the pieces, there’s no-one to fill his considerable boots.