This World Cup is scary: full of unpredictable shocks

England, the cocky England, have been knocked out. Defending champions Spain are out. Italy is on the brink of an unexpected exit by the look of things. How scary can a World Cup get!

Spain’s case is an easier one to disect. The burial of FC Barcelona in their tragic 2013/2014 La Liga season by far announced the death of Spain. The Barca trio of Xavi, Iniesta and Gerard Pique for a long time defined the Spanish team. But that squad was ageing. The tactics were fading out. They were approaching their waterloo. And fast it was approaching.

Then they met the Netherlands in their opening group match; an encounter that was largely touted as a grudge match. Having beaten Holland to win the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa, Spain was not going to get it easy against the Dutch in Brazil. And convincingly Spain was given a 5-1 hiding at the hands of the Orange Dutch. Probably not by that margin but I had the weird feeling that Spain would lose to the Netherlands.

When they crushed out of the competition by the 2-0 defeat in the hands of Chile, it was a confirmation that the Spanish kingdom had abdicated the World Cup throne. Time was up to go home! And now we shall have a new winner of the Jules Rimet.

England’s situation invites both pity and admonition in equal measure. Why was Frank Lampard drafted into the squad if he couldn't be played? Apart from his experience, the Chelsea Midfield Maestro has both defensive and attacking mentality. When he was bunched against Italy, I was left wondering if big games still require big players. Well, they still do and that explains the Italian dominance over the English in that match.

While it is worth noting that Manager Roy Hodgson was giving young talents a chance to impress, doing that at football’s biggest stage is risky, almost suicidal.

Looking at the group that had Uruguay, Italy, England and Costa Rica, one would have easily written Costa Rica off for the reason that it is only they that are ranked out of the Fifa top ten in that group. But now Costa Rica top the group after beating Uruguay and Italy. The World Cup has this weird way of being kind to some teams and being cruel to others!

With the Three Lions shortly expected at Heathrow, pre-tournament favorites Italy now have to play a crunch match against Uruguay and ensure they win to qualify to the next round. Without really taking anything away from Costa Rica, how Italy lost to them still is inexplicable. The Azuri, Andrea Pirlo’s Azuri, lost to Costa Rica.  Now Uruguay needs to qualify. Italy badly needs to qualify. And they go against each other in the next match. How else can one describe a pulsating match!

But all this is what makes football the beautiful game and World Cup the biggest sporting event in the globe. A sport of surprises. A sport of unpredictability. This is football.

Now that their world dominance has crumbled, Spain has to get a whole new team that can innovate a whole new ball game to compete favourably with the rest of the world. England has a bright future with its young squad gaining experience at the global stage. Otherwise for the two countries, better luck next time!