The group stage allowed us to see plenty of surprises. The Saudi Arabia win against Argentina was certainly one of the biggest one game wonders of the tournament. We could point to the Germany debacle as a surprise as well. However, this is a recurring issue at this point. We’ve talked about this at length already. So far in the round of 16 though the team that was the consensus favorite coming into the matchup has pulled through every time. Even Croatia who despite being the lower ranked team in their matchup against Japan was still the odds on favorite to win their matchup was able to do so.
We’re writing this before the Morocco versus Spain matchup, and the Portugal game, so we still could be proved wrong. Spain is in a similar spot to Croatia going into their matchup. Despite them being second in their group they should be favored to beat Morocco who have had a great World Cup so far. Why is though that the surprises have run out in the round of 16?
Teams Are More Likely To Keep Up The Intensity for 90 Minutes
No offense to Japan, but their wins against Germany, and Spain are a testament to this happening in the first round. Germany should really re think what they’re doing because this lack of attention to detail for 90 minutes go them knocked out of the group stage again! We saw something similar happen with Brazil against Cameroon. What we perceived as the stronger team also saw themselves as the stronger team on the field. Sometimes what happens is that you let your guard down. Argentina versus Saudi Arabia is another example of this happening.
Perhaps thanks to these let downs it’s going to be less likely that a team will allow something similar to happen to them again. Brazil is a perfect example again today. They eased off the gas after they were up 4-0! They learned from Argentina who were coasting with 2-0, and they conceded a goal and had to suffer the rest of the game.
There Are Better Teams Left In The Tournament
Since there are better teams left in the tournament than there were in the group stage it’s more likely that the teams that we perceive as superior won’t overlook their opponents. In each of the upsets that we saw in the first round it’s fair to assume that there was a bit of arrogance involved. The upsets that we saw didn’t necessarily feature a dominant performance from the underdog squad. It was a couple of minutes that changed the game!
What Would Be A Surprise At This Point?
It’s fair to ask, at this point in the tournament what could we consider a surprise? Perhaps a loss from Spain to Morocco. We have to take into account though that in that particular matchup Morocco is coming into the game as the better ranked team. Even if on paper most us would still consider Spain to be the better squad overall. Oddly enough Croatia could provide an upset in the next round as well. Brazil is arguably the team that has looked the best at the tournament so far. Even though Croatia got to the finals of Russia 2018 they look to be underdogs in the matchup.
Our point is, that from this moment onward it’s going to be hard to be surprised by any result. With better teams left in the competition we pretty much expect that anyone can beat anyone. Our hope though, is that we’re still able to see plenty of emotional finishes to games from now until the end of the tournament.
