The round of 16 of the 20th World Championship in Brazil is about to start, but the tournament so far reserved more than one surprise. Who could have expected that Costa Rica or Algeria would be among the best 16 teams in the world?
From the 28th of June until the 1st of July the World Cup will see sixteen team face off for securing a spot in the quarters. Brazil-Chile, Colombia-Uruguay, Netherlands-Mexico, Costa Rica-Greece, France-Nigeria, Germany-Algeria, Argentina-Switzerland and Belgium-United States, those are the pairs who are going to be facing in a direct match. In case of a tie, the matches will continue to extra time and, eventually, to penalties.
So far this has been the Championship of surprises and controversies. Already before the kick off some protests spread all around Brazil, but during the first two weeks of the competition under the lens were not the teams, but the referees. Too strict, not strict enough, missed penalties, unnecessary red cards or dubious offside, all combined raised some doubts about the competences of the referees chosen by FIFA.
The downfall of the titans
Italy, England, Spain, Portugal… Four all-stars European teams were eliminated from the competition with very little honour. Spain lost its very first match against The Netherlands 1-5, in a sort of revenge for four year ago in South Africa, and again against Chile. “La Furia Roja” (Spain), after winning almost everything in the last eight years, left in good company. Bento’s Portugal appeared to be just an extra in this competition without any ability to finalize the game. Even the engine of the team, Cristiano Ronaldo, was unable to deliver a solid performance. Together in the “Death Tournament” (as it was called), Italy and England were overwhelmed by their opponents. A lot of polemics arouse about the non qualification of Italy, especially after Suarez, in the match Italy-Uruguay, bit Chiellini and was disqualified for eight matches and forbidden to enter football fields for four months.
Dreaming of the Cup
If some teams were expected to be the main characters in the competition, but failed to perform well, others were the biggest surprise of the tournament. Algeria made history advancing for the first time, along with Greece, to this stage. Costa Rica was able to beat three teams who, put together, won seven World Cups throughout their history and now the Mesoamerican team will face Greece for a spot in the quarters.
American teams on the top
No European team in the entire World Championship history was able to win overseas and eight teams out of sixteen are from the American continent. One of the causes could be the climate and the fields, but the quality (and sometimes the luck) of those teams will speak by itself as the Championship progresses
And the AEGEEans?
The AEGEEans are involved in a parallel competition of betting. Several AEGEEans joined the Facebook group to follow the competition together. After guessing most of the results, the competition among AEGEE members is lead by Alessandra Dehò from AEGEE-Brescia, closely followed by Umberto Castiglione (AEGEE-Napoli), Armenak Minasyants (AEGEE-Yerevan) and George Dimitrakoupolous (AEGEE-Patra). Another competition was launched for the round of 16. Who do you think will make it to the quarter final?
Written by Erika Bettin, AEGEE-Venezia