World Cup 2014: Dark Horses at This Summer’s Football Feast

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: January 3, 2014

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Spain will be there or thereabout. As will the omnipresent Germans. And so will the orange army from the Netherlands.

That's not to mention Argentina and the hosts, Brazil. No European team has ever won a World Cup in South America, remember?

But who will be this year's Bulgaria, South Korea or Turkey? Which team will be the outsider that sneaks a place in the semi-final, or even the final?

Let's start with an interesting one.

 

England

Dismissed at home and abroad as international also-rans, it is easy to forget that England can compete with any team in the world on their day. Just this past summer they held Brazil to a 2-2 draw at the opening of the Maracana, as Sam Wallace reported for The Independent.



Tasked with a difficult group including Italy and Uruguay, England will be at full throttle from the first kick. But shedding the tag of the "golden generation" might be just the pressure release England's players need to relax and play as they do every week in the Premier League.

It will do England no good trying to imitate Spain's tika-taka or Brazil's samba football. They need to channel the very essence of the Premier League: absorbing pressure and counter-attacking at pace. Who knows, they may even learn to keep possession.

Patrick Barclay, writing in The Evening Standard, is certainly not so bleak about England's potential. 

Having told you all along not to worry about qualification, I can now predict the abandonment of Greg Dyke’s commission as the supply of young English players in the Premier League magically increases.

Seriously, it’s already happening — look at Andros Townsend — and Ross Barkley is expected to be prominent among others keen to live the dream of a World Cup in Brazil.



 

Ivory Coast

So what about Africa?...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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