World Cup - Upsets, the Mourinho Effect and the Shameful Australians

Which coach has the most influence in this World Cup without actually being there? It is José Mourinho and his treble-winner Internazionale Milan. Their best showing was beating the most dominant Barcelona - Messi et al - in the semi-final en route to the Champions League title. They did it by organizing an excellent defense and counter-attacked with one of the best midfield creators and a top striker.

That was why in the first games, when most of the teams that didn't want to start out with a loss used that strategy - some with better success than others. With that in mind, it was not surprising to see quite a few named teams got upset by draws and even defeats.

Was Serbia beating Germany a surprise? In my previous posts, I wrote that "I am rooting for Serbia ... to take 1st or 2nd place [in its group]" and "Germany shone with their youngsters ... I don't think they can win it all due to inexperience." Young and inexperience mean inconsistencies. Moreover, if you measure position by position, you will see that Serbia, with players like Vidic, Ivanovic, Stankovic, etc. have bigger names and better regarded players than Germany. So the result was hardly a surprise despite the Germans started the tournament with a bang by beating the shameful Australians 4:0.

New Zealand earning a draw against Italy would be a small surprise if I had not watched their 1st game against Slovakia. The All Whites were much better than I thought. I should apologize for writing "New Zealand have no business being here". Speaking of which, Australia should be ashamed of themselves.

Australia used to dominate the Oceania Football Confederation. Oceania is the only confederation out of the six that has no guaranteed spot in the FIFA World Cup. Their top team usually has to play an extra home-and-away series against an Asian or a South American nation to earn a World Cup spot. In 2006, Australia petitioned to quit Oceania and joined the Asian Football Confederation, thinking that they are better than most Asian countries and trying to avoid the South Americans.

Alas, after reaching this World Cup as an 'Asian' representative, Australia showed nothing of note other than leading in red card ejections. New Zealand, proudly representing Oceania, were better organized and showed admirable fighting spirit compared to their shameful Oceania neighbor.