Guess we should have seen this coming during the qualification stages of the World Cup, as teams like Sweden, Serbia, Paraguay and Senegal could not make it to the tournament, and others like France and Portugal had to go through the play-off stage to qualify.
The ongoing World Cup in Brazil has been characterized with surprises the world least expect with the so called favourites letting points slip away either by defeats or even a draw, it brings to bear the fact that football has evolved and there are no more underdogs in football but the question is 'does that mean the big guns have lost their grip on the game?'
Two consecutive loses to Netherlands and Chile by the reigning world champion, Spain, seems to throw shivers down the spines of every football fan telling them that predicting a game before it kicks-off and ends is not advisable, another 3-1 defeat suffered by Group C favourite, Uruguay in the hands of Costa Rica in the group's opening game was another bitter pill to swallow, and no one saw the 4-0 demolition of Portugal by Germany coming.
Spain's total reliance on 'Tiki-taka' which has seen them sit at the top of the FIFA ranking since 2008 winning them two UEFA European trophies(2008 and 2012) and the FIFA World Cup in 2010 in South Africa have failed them this time out as the style has failed to win nor earn them a draw in their first two games of the ongoing competition, rather, they were completely pummelled 5-1 by Netherlands and they could not do anything to savage their faith as they lost again; 2-0 to Chile in a rather uncharacteristic manner ending their dominance of the game.
Another surprise in the ongoing tourney, was Uruguay's loss to Costa Rica. Having lost their most prolific striker, Luis Suarez to injury going into the opening match of the tournament, Uruguay had to fall back on the experience of veteran, Diego Forlan, and the firing prowells of Edison Cavani to lead the attack against the North America team dubbed the 'weeping boys' of the group. Despite taking the lead through Cavani, Uruguay could not breakdown the Costa Rican's defence again rather they were outplayed on the field and conceded two goals in three minutes and another in the closing minutes of the encounter to slum to a shocking defeat as Suarez and the world looked on in amusement.
Having brushed past Sweden in the play-off stage to qualify for the World Cup, Portugal were deemed one of the teams to watch out for when the tournament swings into full gear. When the grouping finally came and they were seeded in Group G along side Germany, USA, and Ghana, it was only ideal for football pundits to give them a edge to emerge out of the group onto the next phase of the competition but I tell you it is going to be a very difficult one right now, having fell to an Embarrassing 4-0 defeat to Germany in their opening game despite the presence of current World Footballer of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo, which leaves them rooted to the bottom of the group.
Going into the tournament, every fan of the English team were optimistic that this time out, the team is going to do better than their previous outing but what can we say, a 2-1 defeat in the hands of Italy and another similar defeat to Uruguay has put their hopes of qualification for the round of 16 shattered as Costa Rica pulled a second consecutive surprise in the group defeating Italy in the second match of the group, sending England out of the World Cup, their earliest in since 1958.
Given the wealth of experience in the Italian team, no one will ever expect that a lowly rated Costa Rica team will pull a draw not to say a win over them, but a Bryan Ruiz header was all the Americans needed to pull an unexpected win and show the world that they are a team to fear.
The form and ability of the host of this year's event going into the tournament was in a blazing one, and everyone believed they will do very well in the tournament, but after a not too impressive showing against Croatia in the opening game of the tournament (thou they won) and another poor display in the goalless draw against Mexico, the ability of the 'Samba boys' to win the tournament on their home soil has become highly questionable.
With over seventy goals scored in the 20 matches played so far, it is right to say this tournament has been a goal feast and no team is leaving anything to chances most especially the presumably MINORS.
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