Success and failures of WC teams

[AminGP]

[iran5678]

First of all Costa Rica does not have the financial and international resources that Japan has and that is why they ended up playing those teams,

and then I guess Costa Rica have a much smarter coach than Japan that even with these friendly's he could pin point the problems and solved them before the WC, something that the japan's coach could not do.

[rezabmehr]

With all due respect to Costa Rica and their accomplishments, almost every world cup has a Cinderella team. When a small team makes a huge run like that it is 90% mental. Football has evolved and the difference between the 32 WC teams is really small. It is a matter of inches and seconds. A last second goal can make you and a shot stopped by woodwork can kill all dreams. Sometimes things just fall in place and all cylinders end up working as well. I am sure their coaching staff injected lots of positive energy into their players and made them believe they can stay toe to toe with not one but three previous WC champs. You will be amazed what scoring couple of of goals and winning close games can do for the players self confidence. All of a sudden they become believers and breaks seem to come to teams with that mindset.

Just imagine had TM beat Argentina on that sad day and all of a sudden we were going into the final game with 4 points. Since we did not score any goals in the 1st two games, our offense had no confidence and we kept going back into our comfort zone. Defense.

[Hosseini]

With all due respect to Costa Rica and their accomplishments, almost every world cup has a Cinderella team. When a small team makes a huge run like that it is 90% mental. Football has evolved and the difference between the 32 WC teams is really small. It is a matter of inches and seconds. A last second goal can make you and a shot stopped by woodwork can kill all dreams. Sometimes things just fall in place and all cylinders end up working as well. I am sure their coaching staff injected lots of positive energy into their players and made them believe they can stay toe to toe with not one but three previous WC champs. You will be amazed what scoring couple of of goals and winning close games can do for the players self confidence. All of a sudden they become believers and breaks seem to come to teams with that mindset.
Just imagine had TM beat Argentina on that sad day and all of a sudden we were going into the final game with 4 points. Since we did not score any goals in the 1st two games, our offense had no confidence and we kept going back into our comfort zone. Defense.

This post is so spot on. Football is almost all in your head, and that result vs Argentina set our players back a few steps from a mental standpoint. If we tied 0-0, or like you said won, 1-0, I can guarantee Bosnia would've been beaten by atleast 2 goals.

After not scoring in the first two matches, the goal looked minuscule to our players on the offensive end. Losing to Argentina was a blow to the stomach, and I don't think the team had the required motivation to contend with Bosnia's loose, free style of play. It's like the players were trapped in a box and couldn't breath. No creativity.. just high nerves.

[Bi-honar]

Two words: Self Belief!

[Adesor Vafaseya]

http://www.persianfootball.com/forum...national-forum

[EKBATAN]

costa rica made it this far cuz england was shit and italy decided to go home after 1 good game and uruguay didnt have suarez first game...so its these teams bad runs that helped them get outta the group and they literally got the easiest team of knockout stages lol
lets see what they do against the dutch. i still have lots of respect for them but if they're real, they'll show up against the dutch