WC FInal Countdown - Top 5 World Cup Overachieving Teams: 5 - Australia --> How can a team who went through the tournament with three losses and not a single point OVERacheive?, I hear you, somewhat reasonably, ask. The answer is simple: Im Australia, its my list, and I get to choose. We pushed Chile, we pushed the Dutch, we lost against a resurgent, galvanised Spain desperate for an ounce of redemption. And we did it all without our most promising AM (Kruse), an ageing Cahill, a slow back line, an unfit Bresciano and an unproven set of backups. And we did it all whilst playing attacking football for the first time in, like, ever. Awesome. 4 - USA --> Written off going into the tournament by every pundit I listened to/read. And yup - they lived up to the anti-hype of having effectively zero technical ability and a midfield who, save Michael Bradley, largely ran around looking like they didnt know what to do. (SOme would even argue Michael Bradley only popped up in the right place by playing law of averages: when you run that much, youre bound to find yourself in the right place eventually). But they came through a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana and did so with real grit, and then pushed Belgium all the way to the very end (miraculously not scoring towards the end). A performance based entirely around fitness and determination, rather than football ability. Good on em. 3 - Mexico --> Four coaches in six months was the record for Tiki Taco going into the tournament. Big Miguel Herrera defied the odds (even without Carlos Vela) to offer a great showing against Brazil, an even greater showing against Germany, and a great win over Croatia. They were also the finest exponents of the whats-old-is-new-again 5-3-2 (with Layun in particular really showing wing-backs how to play) and Gio Dos Santos probably had all other Spurs fans going I cant believe we sold this kid. When your crowing achievement going inot the tournament is rout of NZ in the play-off, you know a run to the R16 is a good day at the office. 2 - Algeria --> Those in the know would argue that Algeria SHOULDNT have been a surprise, as the highest ranking African team going into the tournament. Nonetheless, with Belgium and Russia in their group, things were never going to be easy, yet they really did explode onto the stage, especially in the South Korea tie where they banged in four great goals. Djabou really stood up to be counted, and avenged the outrage of the 1982 Germany VS Austria debacle. 1 - Costa Rica --> perhaps the obvious choice, but going all the way to a world cup quarter final, and pushing the Dutch to penalties is a remarkable achievement for a country of only four million people whose prior greatest world cup achievement was an R16 in 1990 when the Cup only had 24 teams (they came 13th out of 24). They did the groups with style, then got the job done over the Greeks. They were within a penalty of a famous victory in the quarters. Amazing to watch.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:40:31 +0000