World Cup Upsets

It has been an interesting world cup so far. As we reach the end of the first round, two clear trends has emerged that supports the trend that whenever a world cup is held outside of Europe, the South Americans are again the kings of the game. For some teams, the tournament has brought out their best and their peak performance in sports. For some, the results has been downright disappointing.

The first obvious trend is that all the South American Teams have advanced or are closed to advancing into the next round of the world cup. The traditional power houses have maintained their positions as favourites. Brazil and Argentina has cruised into the next round with a game to spare, and in the process has played good exciting football that thrilled the crowd and lived up to expectations from their fans. The other unfancied South American teams like Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile has also provided a few shock results against their so called superior opponents in their group. Uruguay in particular has impressed with their peak performance in sports, winning two and drawing one without conceding a goal. Chile has also cruised into round two with effective 1-0 wins in their first two games. Paraguay held Champions Italy to a 1-1 draw and has won their second game. It only remains for them to secure a good result against minnows New Zealand to secure their passage to the next stage. Don't be surprised to see all 5 South American Teams advance far into the latter stages.

In contrast to the peak performance in sports of the South American teams, the European giants have been faltering. France won nothing but attracted the greatest attention with the off field training strike ethics that will surely bring condemnation from the whole of France. In fact, the entire team should be axed and never be selected again for any more international games. Regardless of the reasons of protest, they should never have seated out a training session. They have already arrived in South Africa with an unpopular coach, a controversial playoff victory over Ireland and lack of team spirit and confidence, they did not need another distraction. France deserves to go home aerly and shamed. England has always attracted a lot of hot air at big tournaments and this is no different. When you look at the players they have compared other big names like Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Holland, they are actually quite ordinary.

Yes, they have dynamic players like Rooney and Gerard, but they never truly possess skillful wizards like Messis, Kaka or Ronaldo. If they do advance, credit it to their sole asset - their coach Fabio Capello. The players has not shown enough faith and trust in this highly successful coach. Spain, Italy and Germany has self destructed somewhat, and they faced tough tests in their last games to advance. Spain seems distracted by WAGs. The Germans has underestimated their second opponents and they now face a tough game against the only realistic African team who can advance, Ghana. Italy are old and facing rising teams. Their last game is also against a team who is fighting to qualify themselves. The only European teams that has done well quietly are Holland and Portugal. These two teams are quietly building up their team work that is so essential to peak performance in sports. Don't be surprised to see them do well in the World Cup.

This World Cup has been taunted the chance for the African teams to finally show their true potential. In a sense, they have shown that, and their potential is still not good enough yet. The teams have all the stars and quality with so many of their players plying their trade and Europe. But until they get their houses in order to bring some form of stability in their country with sound structures and motivation, the African teams will not do well. They have been a major disappointment so far. I hope for the stake of the contingent and the game at least one team, most likely Ghana, advance to the next round for peak performance in sports.