There are a lot of teams that are always expected to compete in the World Cup. Italy, Brazil, France, and Germany. These are usually the some of these favorites. But what about the smaller countries? The ones that overlooked by the untrained eye? Countries like...Cyprus.
The country of only 754,064 people is much different than these other counties not only in size and population, but also in the fact that their national team has never been to a World Cup. They've been attempting to qualify since 1962, however not until this year have their chances been so high. At least their head coach Angelos Anastasiadis thinks so.
Although they loss their first qualifying match to Italy 2-1, they made a very strong showing. The fans and players are optimistic even after the loss, comforted by the fact that earlier this year, the Anorthosis Club team became the first team from Cyprus to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.
Cyprus played exceptionally well earlier this year in their push to make UEFA Euro 2008, winning four matches and coming to a draw against Germany (Germany later when on to play in the final). These games may be a glimmer of what is to come later in the World Cup qualifying matches against Georgia and Republic of Ireland. Cyprus really needs to win these two upcoming games in order to make it. They need to look past their recent injuries and unsuccessful World Cup history and focus at the task at hand.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
October 9th, 2008 - The David of the World Cup?
Posted by Ally Weber at 3:50 PM
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2 comments:
What are your thoughts on Greece's winning the 2004 Euro Cup?? Aren't they in a similar situation as Cyprus?
Not one of the powerhouses, smaller country which leads to less of a talent base, etc.
I think that their situation is very similar. Just like Cyprus, Greece was the underdog and no one took them seriously. This is what ultimately led to the downfall of France, the Czech Republic and then Portugal. I think it's pretty safe to say that these teams didn't take the matches against Greece seriously, until they looked up at the scoreboard with 20 minutes left and saw it was still 0-0.
It's a reality that the bigger named teams are usually better, because of a larger talent base like you said, so Cyprus needs to find another way to win. They need to take full advantage of their opponents mistakes and turn them into positives for their side. Just look at the final for Greece. They only had 4 shots on goal, compared to Portugal's 17. This is a huge difference. The only reason that Greece won is because they exploited Portugal's missed opportunities and weaknesses. I think that Cyprus needs to do exactly that in order to keep their run for the World Cup going.
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