World Cup Roundup – The champions are out!

Spain on their haunches following a woeful early exit [Reuters.com]

The world cup in Brazil has brought us many things over the first week; squiggly foam, dreadful defending, goal-line technology, goals, goals, more goals, and a sprinkle of more goals for good measure. To date, there have seen sixty goals in the past seven days. Why is this? A lack of top quality centre-backs? A proverbial purple patch for attacking players? Probably a combination of both.

To take the recently relegated Spain; Pique and Ramos have been terrible and the pacey, ever-threatening Jordi Alba was non-existent. Coming up against an Arjen Robben in the form of his life, and a resurgent Robin Van Persie, there was no contest. There are a lot of strikers either in-form, or with a point to prove in this tournament, whilst the centre-backs are not up to the same standard. Even England and Italy, who both have a rich history of world class defenders, will admit their defences are the weak points.

It has probably been one of the more open world cups too, with a host of teams now in with a chance of winning. Pre-tournament, the same names of Argentina, Germany, Spain and Brazil were cited as likely winners, but with the holders Spain now eliminated, the hosts Brazil looking nervous under home pressure, and Argentina’s history of peaking early, it is wide open.

A number of teams have staked their claims to the trophy after the first round of matches too; Netherlands demolished Spain and saw out an uncomfortable but professional victory over a dogged Australian side, Croatia are the in-form team, and Chile put Spain to the sword with apparent ease. Italy, despite not having much second half possession, looked a classy side against England, who themselves showed an attacking verve not seen since the 90s.

Germany and France, as ever, are colossal threats despite a pre-world cup fall-out between the manager of France and a couple of the players. No European side has ever won a South American world cup, but there could well be one this year.

The openness of the Brazilian world cup is not only down to teams underachieving, but aside from Cameroon and Iran, the lower ranked teams in the tournament have proven to be a challenge. Australia are the lowest ranked team and they can be very disappointed to be on 0 points following spirited performances against Chile and Netherlands respectively.

Costa Rica also surprised Uruguay with a commanding 3-1 win. Full credit goes to their coaches for the way they have set up against the top teams. A favourable formation seen fairly often so far, mastered by Chile, has been the 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation, with the full-backs functioning more as wing-backs; the whole set-up revolving round their stamina and ability to provide the overlap for creative midfielders, whilst also tracking back. These guys are the fittest players in the tournament. Many teams have also opted to simply play five in midfield with the 4-2-3-1; it floods the midfield with creativity and provides the striker with a wealth of opportunities (in theory).

Spain being eliminated in the first round is a catastrophic loss to the tournament, but Chile’s success is refreshing and might just spur some of the other dark horses on, creating more potential ‘cupsets’.