I think USA are just underated. and I thought the whole world Knows that Cote de Ivory is a threat. I mean either of those two could easily reach the semis. I'll say Denmark are mine. Yayyyyyy.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo blog The Dark Horses?
At every major sporting event, they are there. Hidden in the shadows, peeking stealthily around corners, and chewing mouthfuls of holy green turf.
They are the dark horses; striking fear into the hea...

Have your say.

By the way Dave your Wit has been better then ever in these previous two blogs.

Serbia are definitely a dark horse. Germany I'd say are outsiders.

And I'm going to go out on a real limb and suggest that Switzerland might surprise everyone.

Slovakia. Hamsik is a beast.

I think if Chilie can get out of their group they could upset a team or two.

"handball match" made me laugh out loud. I remember the Perugia president/manager saying that when Ahn came to him, he was "like a little lost goat without a sandwich" or something to that effect - a phrase I use to this day.

"Poor Germany - as if being drawn to face international superpowers Australia wasn't bad enough, another dark horse has whinnied its way into Group D in the form of Serbia."

"relegating France to a sudden death handball match with Ireland."

I flipping love you, Dave.

Dark horses: I'm gonna say Paraguay, Chile & USA.

Slovenia will surprise a few people.

Nice little article Dave.

I'm definitely thinking about USA as a darkhorse. Ivory Coast though are getting so much hype that it's getting hard to see them as underdogs though. Not so sure about Serbia... even though I think they have a slight edge over Australia, I can't see them beating any heavyweights to go beyond the last 8.


Personally, my big tip as a low-flyer is Mexico. They looked like they might not even qualify under Sven, but pulled out some impressive performances late in their campaign to secure passage. And with young guns like Vela (Arsenal), Guardado (Deportivo) and Hernandez (Man Utd) joined by Barcelona youth-team products the dos Santos brothers I think this could be a tournament where they make at least the final 4.

I don't really understand why Mexico with it's population, football history and balance between wealth and poverty doesn't match it with Argentina and Brazil on football's world stage. Perhaps now is time for them to right that wrong?!


My other darkhorses (besides CONCACAF duo Mexico and the US) would have to be Denmark and Australia... but fair to say I'm a little bias in both those hopes!!!

One man doesn't make a team.

They've been competative in the past, this previous generation just hasn't been that good, and they develop differently because the domestic league isn't as competative, players look overseas for their money. And because their confedereation isn't exactly the most competative going around.

My pick would either be Serbia, since their squad is packed with quality, or Ivory Coast. They, like Korea eight years ago, are likely to be the beneficiaries of some very dodgy refereeing decisions that might prove crucial to their advancement.

Predicting it now that trigger happy refs at this WC are going to set a new precedent for stupidity.

Cameroon

Australia

Yep - I pretty much had them as my fourth dark horse. All American teams (bar Brazil) are so hot and cold though - no idea on who will turn up in the day...

:roll: :roll: keep dreaming mate

Cameroon

Chile were one of the more consistent teams in qualifying and only really suffered when playing at altitude though.

That's a fair call - I had a look back on their 2009 results.

In their qualifiers, they did very well:
A. Peru - win
H. Uruguay - draw
A. Paraguay - win
H. Bolivia - win
H. Venezuala - draw
A. Brazil - loss
A. Columbia - win
H. Ecuador - win

The international friendlies are a bit more mixed, however:
Honduras - loss
South Africa - win
Japan - loss
Belgium - draw
Denmark - win
Paraguay - win
Slovakia - win

Still good, but a little more shaky.

Overall though, I'd say you're right - they look a little more consistent than I gave them credit for.

call me crazy, but i think south korea will get out of their group and then who knows what can happen!. serbia also! does any one else think its about time mexico did something special?

@Goulam, if you are going to be so negative about Australia's world cup chances, don't even bother logging on to FourFourTwo.

It's fine to label Australia a dark horse - nobody gave us a chance last time after all.


But yeah, I think we had a better squad last time round TBH.

freedom of speech mate :d