Who is going to be the big Surprise in SouthAfrica 2010!!

Hi guys, well in every world cup there are teams wich are not really favorites but in the tournamet did very very well i remember for example
Croatia in 1998, Bulgary in 1994, Cameroon in 1990, Turkey in 2002 now the question is:

¿Wich non Favorite team could be the great Surprise next july?

As Always i begin with my own opinion:

1- CHILE
2- KOREA
3- USA
4- MEXICO

In that order, lets begin to comment

thks Paco

I see chile being a surprise to people outside of conmebol...even if they don't get the results they will surprise people with their style of play


and, of course, they can also do pretty well and make it pretty far.

I'm expecting South Africa to make the qtr finals, maybe even semis but how much of a suprise will it be if the hosts make it that far? Not much really. Slovakia could be a suprise team. Teams like Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Ghana could make the semi's and again I wouldnt be suprised.

Its the cup for African teams to shine!

I´m going to say the Ivory Coast or Ghana

true, I like Chile's chances as well and Serbia.

Yeah Chile has a great team as well as Paraguay and Mexico.

Ivory Coast, but then everyone seems to be tipping them to cause an upset and go far so maybe it won't really be a surpise if it does happen after all.

That would still qualify as a huge surprise. This is the weakest host nation ever apart from maybe USA'94 (who won only 1 game).

That's what they were saying about South Korea though, and look what happened there.
Otherwise, I agree, South Africa have been pretty poor of late and for them to get through to the quarter finals, even as the host nation, would still be a big suprise.

I think Honduras might cause some surprises in South Africa.

I feel Slovakia could be the black horse.

I agree with this World Cup Blog that says Serbia could do well next summer.

They have Vidic and Ivanovic at the back, Jankovic and Stankovic in midfield and the giant Nikola Zigic up front.

Could be an outside tip for the 1/4 finals at least.

It is the easiest question ever! Take the 32 teams and remove the 6 or 7 favorites and 3 or 4 no-hopers. And that would be your answer!

This is so incidental. How could anyone imagine that Ukraine would be in the 2006 quarters among the grands? It could have been the Swiss or the Australians, whoever. Same this time.

I expected South Korea and Japan to do well in 2002. Making the semi's didn't suprise me at all. I remember in 1999 they beat Brazil in a friendly, Brazil then played Japan and won 2 nil with two goals from Rivaldo.

Wasn;t a suiprise at all. Many were tipping them to have a cinderella run after they topped a very impressive qualifying group including the likes of Turkey, Denmark and Greece. As it turns out their showing flattered them in the end as they copped two floggings from Spain and Italy { 3-0 result flattered us } and beat Tunisia 1-0 from a lucky pk and Saudi Arabia 4-0 who are nobodies. Beat the Swiss on pk's.

If it's easy, choose then. And what stupid conclusion you came up with. Take the 6 or 7 favourites and 3 no hopers leaving you with 22 teams to choose from and there's your answer. Yeah, great theory mate.





NOOOTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I expect an African team to do well. One would assume the hosts will do well, but I don't think S. Africa are good enough to go much beyond round 2.

Ghana would be my guess.

Ghana. They have the most tactical football in Africa right now, very strong youth squads and are not afraid to take on the powers.

They can make it to semis, considering their team is as strong as South Korea's was before 2002 (if not stronger), and they are more respected outside Africa (most people who didn't know much about them dismissed the Koreans in 2002 thinking them not stronger than Japan --big mistake).

I more or less agree with Goliath on this... If we are talking about surprises that reach the semis or quarters, there may be more than 3 hopeless teams, but it has still a lot to do with luck and a bit with form of the day.

In 2006, Ivory Coast had a disappointing group stage exit, Ukraine reached the quarters, the difference was that Ukraine had luck in the draws. In 2002, Turkey only beat Asian teams and Senegal, they didn't even meat other Europeans and the only South American was Brazil, to whom they lost twice.

Not to say that Turkey or Ukraine weren't good at the tournaments, but the outsider that goes furthest is often simply the team that didn't meat one of the favourites.

The total surprise is a surprise precisely because no one expects it. And that is the point. And 22 teams will equally, at this stage, qualify as possible surprises.

rightly or wrongly, in chile people are expecting AT LEAST a quarter final birth

Chile, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and maybe Mexico.

Jankovic from Genoa isn't at Serbia first 11, maybe you mean Jovanovic from Standard, scored against Olympiakos last night? He is a beast and he will move to Valencia probably. Serbia have strong team, Vidic, Ivanovic, Stankovic, Jovanovic, Krasic (scored against Man United 2 days ago, linked with Milan, L'pool, Arsenal...), Kuzmanovic (scored against Sevilla last night), Kacar (Hertha best player), attacking line with Zigic (Valencia), Lazovic (PSV), Pantelic (Ajax) and many other good players like Kolarov (Lazio), Dragutinovic (Sevilla), Subotic (german league ideal 11 last year), Lukovic (Udinese) etc. Won't be suprise if this team do well.

I expect Cameroon, Ghana and Ivory Coast to play well (2 making the quarters) but I wouldn't really consider that a surprise... Chile and Mexico will put on a show

History shows that a surprise team going really deep (semi-final) usually is European: Belgium 86, Bulgaria and Sweden 94, Croatia 98 and Turkey 02. Until we see the outcome of the draw, I might as well say Slovakia this time.

However, with the World Cup now being held in Africa, you would expect an African team to step up and justify those six spots CAF occupies in the finals. It's time for the likes of Ivory Coast and Ghana to deliver, because I don't think South Africa look strong enough.

And since South America hasn't had any team in the last eight other than Brazil and Argentina since 1978, it might be a good time for Chile to rise to the occasion.

Bauser: A technicality, but CAF has 5 spots in the final. The sixth is the host's spot and has nothing to do with the federation a given country belongs you.