With the commencement on Saturday of the knock-out stage of the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Brazil, some of the top and favourite teams tipped to win the trophy have already fallen by the way side.
England failed to progress beyond the World Cup group stage for the first time since 1958
Top on the list is world number one and defending champion, Spain, despite its 3-0 bashing of Australia in their last Group B match.
The dominant global football power for the past six years was eliminated following a 2-0 defeat suffered in the hands of Chile. It was its second loss, after a 5-1 routing by the Netherlands in their first group game.
The ouster, thus, almost brought the curtain down on the international careers of some of the great Spaniard players like Iker Casillas, Xavi Alonso and Andres Iniesta.
Spain won the European Championship in 2008 and 2012, in addition to the 2010 World Cup.
It came to Brazil with an older, but similar, team than the one that won those titles, adding Brazilian-born striker, Diego Costa, who failed to score a goal.
Spain’s ‘tiki-taka’ style of play – keeping the ball for long stretches with short passes, and only shooting when you had a clear opening – had not been working in recent years.
Brazil defeated Spain 3-0 in last summer’s Confederations Cup, a warm-up for the World Cup. The latter became the third European and World Cup champion to flop in the group stage. France failed to advance in 2002, while Italy, four years ago, failed to even win a match.
Badly needing a win, Vicente Del Bosque stayed loyal to captain Casillas despite the veteran goalkeeper’s errors against the Dutch.
Italy followed Spain after it fell to Uruguay 1-0 in their last Group D match. Though the Italians started the World Cup on a promising note, beating England 2-1, but it lost the second match 1-0 to Costa Rica.
Italian coach, Cesare Prandelli, said before the game that it was “the most important match of my professional career”. However, after the defeat, he resigned.
The Azzurri’s ouster also almost ended the international careers of some of the great Italian players like Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi.
The ‘Three Lions’ also failed to roar at Brazil 2014 and crashed out of the Mundial. England failed to progress beyond the World Cup group stage for the first time since 1958 after losing its first Group D match 2-1 to Italy and the second to Uruguay by the same margin before the goalless draw against Costa Rica. The exit is also likely to close the door on the likes of Steven Gerrard, 34, and fellow midfielder, Frank Lampard, 36, and possibly Wayne Rooney.
Croatia, Australia and Japan followed the likes of Spain, Italy and England out of the ongoing World Cup, though with little or no chance of winning the trophy before the commencement of the Mundial in Brazil.
In Nigeria’s Group F, hard-fighting Iran fell to Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-3. However, the two teams had to go, leaving Argentina and Nigeria (two continental champions) to enter the knock-out stages. As the African champion lost 2-3 to the South African champion, Iran needed to win the match to be in contention.
The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire and the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun were the first two to crash out of the continent’s five representatives.
Cote d’Ivoire needed a draw to scale through in Group C; but with few seconds to the end of the match against Greece, it lost the match 2-1 through a controversial injury-time penalty awarded the Greeks by the centre referee.
Georgios Samaras converted the kick to seal the win for Greece after he was adjudged to have been fouled by Giovanni Sio.
Soon after its elimination from the tournament was confirmed, Ivorian coach, Sabri Lamouchi, resigned. He might not be the only one that will be leaving, as the likes of skipper, Didier Drogba; the Toure brothers, Yaya and Kolo; as well as Salmon Kolo are likely to bid the team bye.
Like Italy, Cote d’Ivoire started Brazil 2014 on a good note with a 2-1 victory over Japan, but lost its remaining Group C matches to Colombia and Greece by 2-1 apiece.
It was not surprising that the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun failed to get past the group stage of the competition after finding itself in the same zone with hosts, Brazil; Mexico and Croatia.
In its first Group A match, despite putting up a brilliant performance, the team slipped 0-1 to Mexico, and lost scandalously to Croatia 4-0 before another 4-1 bashing suffered in the hands of the ‘Samba Boys’.
Cameroun’s ouster is also likely to see the end of the likes of Samuel Eto’o Fils, Alex Song and some few others in the squad.
