World Cup of Upsets and Surprises

• The first surprise is the World Cup qualifiers. Bosnia and Herzegovina surprised more than a few, as they came into the group stages. There were other surprises in the form of Japan, Australia, Russia and the United States (all of whom reached the group stages). Belgium and Switzerland also provided surprise as they dominated the qualifying stages.
• The real surprise started when the reigning world champions Spain were battered by the previous World Cup runner-ups Netherlands in their opening game. Spain started the game very well, they even scored the first goal of the match. However, the flying Dutchman Robin van Persie produced the equalizer, after which the game was turned on its head. Seeds of Spain’s upcoming defeat could have been predicted as the team started with Iker Casillas, who was past his prime and he was going through a poor couple of years.
• Then came Uruguay’s 1-3 defeat from the hands of Costa Rica. Uruguay was expected to win this game, in-fact people went on to say that Costa Rica would lose all three games in the group before the start of the match. However, everyone was silenced and surprised by the results Costa Rica managed to produce. One of the reasons for Uruguay’s loss was the absence of their striker Luis Suarez, who was benched due to injury, but the loss would surely put a dent in Uruguay’s dream.
• The English also went down. England suffered a 1-2 defeat from Italy. Italy’s first goal lead was quickly equalized by England, but it was Mario Balotelli’s second goal that proved to be the match-winner. To be fair, this was not a huge surprise as both the teams were evenly matched. England didn’t commit many mistakes, but the team should concentrate on their offense if they hope to avoid any more upsets.
• Switzerland surprised Ecuador producing a 2-1 win over Ecuador. Moreover, the team came back from behind as Ecuador scored the first goal. The comeback was helped by two timely substitutions by the coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. Ecuador went into the match as the anticipated winners, but the result was far from the same.
• Most of the people around the world expected Ghana to win its match against the United States but they could not have been more wrong. The team won Ghana with the score-line of 2-1, which widely opened up Group G. Now, United States has a chance to move into the knockout stages because of Portugal’s 4-1 loss to Germany.

The 2014 World Cup could very well become a tournament of underdogs, if the trend is to continue. It is also important to note that these happened in just the starting five days of the tournament, I think that there are more surprises to follow.