10 most surprising teams in the World Cup 2014

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Following the elimination of Spain, this World Cup 2014 has become meaningless to me. As what I had presumed before, Germany successfully got to the finals. (I don't say it because they really did it, after all I still believe if the semi-finals of Euro Cup 2012 was Spain vs Germany, Spain wouldn't even win) Out of my expectation, the other team which got to the finals was Argentina. In addition, I didn't have any preference of these two teams. If I really needed to choose one, I would support Germany. Owing to the fact that Messi has really lacked sportsmanship these years, he doesn't deserve to be the football king yet. At last, Messi didn't get what he has always wanted. And Germany has become the champion of World Cup 2014. Herzlichen Glückwunsch Deutschland!!!

Although I was heartbroken by the defeats of Spain, I was still surprised by the excellent performance of many underdog teams in this tournament. Thus, the entire month of pulling an all-nighter was totally worthwhile. Here are the 10 teams that I am quite fond of: (Listed in particular order)

10) Algeria

At the group stage, I was very disgusted by Algeria's performance. As I don't like defensive football, and they even played 10-0-0, no attacking at all. In the first match vs Belgium, if Vertonghen wasn't that stupid, they wouldn't even get the penalty kick. Fortunately they insisted to play defensively, otherwise Belgium wouldn't be able to win it back. Despite their 10-0-0 tactic was very annoying, Germany finally felt troubled because of the parking bus. In the end, both of these teams had to play extra time in the round of 16. Though they were defeated 2:1 by Germany, their effort to score the final goal was highly appreciated. 

9) U.S.A.
 

Because the U.S.A. was coached by Jürgen Klinsmann, they were also called the sub-team of Germany. Their results were not bad at the group stage, although they were tied with Portugal, they could still enter to the round of 16. However, Klinsmann used the completely wrong tactics during the match against Belgium, which he wanted to play counter-attack. In the end, they were defeated by Belgium even though they scored one goal. Nevertheless, the goalkeeper Tim Howard became the savior of the U.S.A team, since he did save 15 goals in total. If not, the U.S.A. would be beaten harder......

8) Bosnia and Herzegovina

Their first own goal vs Argentina of the group stage was so unworthy, but luckily they could still keep up with the pace and didn't get defeated like what Spain did. Besides, the second defeat by Nigeria was the most most most unworthy one and that was what made them get eliminated. Because of the mistaken offside goal by Edin Dzeko, as well as the never-been-booked foul by the Nigerian player, which let them easily score a goal, all I could think of at that moment was Black Ref! Nonetheless, the midfield performance of Bosnia did quite surprise me. Their passing was smooth, yet the organization in the front line was not very ideal. It was hard for them to attack even they possessed the ball. When they faced the defensive teams like Argentina and Nigeria, they couldn't even finish the ball in the box, created no threats at all. If they can improve on the front attack, they may get a chance to shine in the Euro Cup in 2016. 

7) Belgium

Belgium has been considered as the dark horse in this World Cup, surely they didn't get us disappointed and successfully entered to the quarter-finals. Of course, they were picked in a group together with some relatively easy teams. Unfortunately, their inconsistent performances did scare/bore me off in the beginning, though the teams they were facing were not strong. From the first match vs Algeria's hard as rock defense, coach Marc Wilmots insisted to play group pass. In the end, he needed to sub in Marouane Fellaini to score the headers and took the victory back. Then it was the second match vs Russia, the ground pass didn't work out and the team finally won the match as Eden Hazard made a decisive move in the penalty area in the last 80 minutes. Even though there were many stars in the Belgium team, their performances were all so unstable. In the match of quarter-finals vs Argentina, it was clearly seen that Hazard was being invisible, the long passes of Kevin de Bruyne were terrible and the attacking pace was always stopped by Axel Witsel, these were all fatal to the loss of Belgium. If they played crosses in the first place, they could have won the game! Anyways, kudos to Vincent Kompany, if it's him, Gonzalo Higuain could have scored more. 

6) Chile

Honestly, I have fallen in love with Chile since last World Cup. Due to their traditional South American's style, fast pace and frequent attack, I was fascinated by them very much. (When I looked back to Argentina's 5-3-2, I really wanted to throw up) After 4 years, Chile seemed to be stronger than last time, and the players also got so much maturer. In addition to the different style from Barca's, Alexis Sanchez got more space and played even better. Their passage to the round of 16 was undoubtedly worthwhile. Nevertheless, they were too unlucky to lose to Brazil by penalty kick. If it's judged by overall performance, Chile for sure was more worthy to get to quarter-finals, but not Brazil!

5) Mexico

The last time I watched a game of Mexico was the final match of Olympics. Despite the quality of the players in the Olympics was varied, Mexico still managed to play beautifully and won the gold medal at last, which left a very strong impression to me. In this World Cup, the performance of Mexico was still very outstanding. The first match vs Cameroon of the two mistaken offside goals were outrageous; the second match vs Brazil was astonishing even without a goal; and the third match vs Croatia was very passionate. Unfortunately, in the round of 16 match vs the Netherlands, the coach of Mexico used the wrong tactics that they decided to play defense with only one leading goal. Finally, the Netherlands scored 2 more and ended the match with a victory. Besides the mistake of the coach, Mexico was also defeated by the newly introduced "cooling break", while the coach of the Netherlands Louis van Gaal could grab the time to change their tactics. Though they got knocked out, the goalkeeper of Mexico Guillermo Ochoa has become a legend. Because of his godly saves, I almost screamed my lung out in the midst of these late nights!

4) France

Since the retirement of Zidane, France have apparently got no heir of such football legend. If they weren't in the same group with Spain in the Euro Cup 2012 and the World Cup Qualifiers, I wouldn't even take the initiative to watch their matches. Before this World Cup started, I had expected the farthest that France could go was the round of 16. Nonetheless, after watching their first match vs Honduras and the landslide victory vs Switzerland, every goal was served as a slap on my face, as if I were warned that I shouldn't have belittled their strength. Surprisingly, without the presence of Samir Nasri and Franck Ribery, the performance of the French team seemed to be more direct and smooth. Perhaps not only I was slapped, but also these two players! (After the list of 23-player was announced, the girlfriend of Nasri continuously attacked the coach Didier Deschamps on Twitter that he picked the wrong players. Until the elimination of France, she once again said that the team should have chosen her adorable boyfriend, so that they wouldn't lose to Germany. I really wanted to shout in her face, "France could get to the quarter-finals, it's all because your useless boyfriend wasn't selected! Just shut up already, b!) Although France lost to Germany in the end, they can indeed prepare for the future, after all their players are still very young. When they become more experienced after 4 years, they maybe can enter to the semi-finals in the next World Cup. 

3) Costa Rica

Despite Costa Rica was drawn in the same group with Italy, Uruguay and England, this ultimate underdog unexpectedly knocked Italy and England out and reached to the round of 16 by being on the top of the group. There was no other reason, it's just because their defense was very monolithic, and the performance of the strikers Joel Campbell and Bryan Ruiz was also very outstanding. When they got to face Greece in the round of 16, no score was conceded by both sides and the match was resulted in penalty kick. Finally, Costa Rica won, in which the goalkeeper Keylor Navas played a very important role. Their defense remained as strong in the quarter-final stage against the Netherlands, that the Dutch kept falling for the Costa Rican's offside trap for over 30 times. Unfortunately, their tactics of 10-0-0 couldn't get them the victory, the match was ended by the penalty kick shootout again. Besides, the Dutch coach Louis van Gaal played the psychological strategy that he changed the goalkeeper only for the shootout. As well as the lack of luck, Costa Rica was finally defeated, but still they won many people's hearts.

2) Colombia

Due to the absence of Radamel Falcao, Colombia had been underrated before the World Cup. To be frank, I didn't really pay attention to their games during the group stage, since their opponents were all very boring. However, without Falcao, they played more as a whole and the style became more direct. The strikers were brilliant, that James Rodriguez became the biggest star in this World Cup. Besides the spectacular goal against Uruguay, he even won the Golden Boot award for scoring 6 goals in total. If they didn't get affected by the quick pace of Brazil in the quarter-finals, Colombia should have been the winner and reached to the semi-finals. Then Brazil wouldn't have conceded 7 goals and the semi-finals would have been more intensive, it would be a win-win situation for both of them!

1) The Netherlands

Since the Euro Cup 2012, the performance of the Netherlands has become very crappy. Furthermore, half of the defensive players of the Netherlands were not famous, as well as the issue of aging Wesley Sneijder, they had been actually belittled before the group stage started. Whereas, the Netherlands' road of the World Cup became smoother after the landslide victory over Spain. In addition to some extra luck, the Netherlands successfully reached to the semi-finals at last. 

In fact, the most controversial game was at the quarter-final stage. The starting goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen was replaced by Tim Krul during the penalty shootout against Costa Rica. Eventually, this tactic worked and van Gaal was therefore highly complimented to make such godly substitution. Later in the semi-finals, both of the Netherlands and Argentina played more conservatively and the final result was decided by the penalty shootout again. However, van Gaal did use up all 3 substitutes and couldn't change the goalkeeper this time. In the end, Ron Vlaar and Sneijer missed the penalties and Cilessen couldn't save one goal from the Argentine. Accordingly, the Netherlands was knocked out from the finals of this World Cup. 

Actually, I felt pretty resentful of this substitution by van Gaal, as poor Cillessen and Krul were being blindfolded and fooled solely by the coach. Neither could they both get the confidence of the coach, nor they could argue with him. In the post-match's press conference, Cillessen was asked if he had known the arrangement beforehand. He said he had completely had no idea. The journalists asked him again, if he felt unsatisfied about the whole incidence. He could merely say that he respected the arrangement of the coach. In fact, who would know if he was swearing and cursing van Gaal in his heart? Could he say it out loud without anyone criticizing him? After the Netherlands lost to the Argentina, van Gaal even said, "If I had had the opportunity to substitute Jasper I would have done that but I had already used three substitutes so I couldn't." What the hell?!? How could he just put all the responsibility on Cillessen? If Cillessen didn't keep the clean sheet for the entire 120 minutes, the Netherlands could play in the penalty shootout? Shame on him, seriously! And good luck to Manchester United, which will have a coach who doesn't give a damn to the players, but is so full of himself!

Truth be told, why have I written so much about the Netherlands? It's just because Cillessen is super cute!

OMG, that wink!!!

Photo sources: FIFA